President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed Turkey-Russia relations and regional developments with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a statement by the Presidential Communications Directorate said Sunday.
The two leaders touched upon developments in the Caucasus, Syria and Libya, as well as international developments.
They also reiterated the determination to further enhance Turkey-Russia cooperation in all spheres.
Putin and Erdoğan "exchanged New Year's greetings and summarized the main results of bilateral cooperation and confirmed the desire to further intensify the mutually beneficial partnership between Russia and Turkey," the Kremlin said in a statement about the leaders' phone call.
Turkey and Russia have forged close cooperation in the fields of energy, tourism and defense despite the rivalry in Syria as well as in conflicts in Libya and Nagorno-Karabakh, where the two regional powers have also been on opposing sides.
NATO member Turkey bought Russian S-400 missile defense batteries in 2019, triggering United States sanctions against its defense industries and warnings from Washington of further action if it bought more Russian equipment.
Turkey, along with the rest of NATO, criticized Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea and voiced support for Ukraine's territorial integrity as Kyiv's forces battle pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.
Last month, Putin criticized Kyiv for deploying Turkish-made drones in its conflict with pro-Moscow separatists.
Ankara says it cannot be blamed for Ukraine's use of Turkish-made drones, adding that if a state buys Turkish weaponry, it is no longer a Turkish product but belongs to the country that has purchased it.
Turkey said that Ankara could mediate between Moscow and Kyiv to end the escalation in the region.
“It is our hope that this region does not become a region dominated by war,” Erdoğan pointed out in November. “Let this region walk into the future as a region dominated by peace,” he said.
In its initial response, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed Ankara's offer while speaking to journalists in Moscow, saying, “The fact is that Russia is not a party to the conflict in Donbass, it will be impossible to find solutions to the problem at such a summit.”
On the other hand, Ukraine welcomed the president’s statements.
Ukraine, which wants to join the NATO military alliance, has blamed Moscow for supporting separatists in a conflict in its east since 2014.
Fighting between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in Donbass has killed more than 13,000 people since 2014, according to the U.N.
The region is one of the several sources of friction between Russia and Ukraine.
