Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of an Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) meeting in the Laos capital of Vientiane, diplomatic sources said Friday.
Fidan and Lavrov discussed bilateral relations, economic issues and energy cooperation in a closed-door meeting, sources said, ahead of the Türkiye-ASEAN Sectoral Dialogue Partnership Sixth Trilateral Meeting.
The pair also touched upon the war in Ukraine, the developments in Gaza, the situation in Syria and other regional issues.
Fidan held a separate meeting with Malaysian Foreign Minister Mohamad Hasan and is expected to meet with his counterparts from Laos, Singapore, Britain and the secretary-general of ASEAN.
In July last year, the foreign minister attended the 5th ASEAN-Türkiye Sectoral Dialogue Partnership Meeting in Indonesia.
Türkiye established institutional relations and signed the Treaty of Amity and Cooperation, one of ASEAN's founding documents, in 2010, before becoming a sectoral dialogue partner in 2017.
Earlier on Thursday, the 57th Meeting of ASEAN Foreign Ministers began in Vientiane.
According to a brief statement released by the 10-member bloc on X, top diplomats reaffirmed their commitment to supporting Laos' theme for this year's activities, "ASEAN: Enhancing Connectivity and Resilience."
The ASEAN will also hold bilateral meetings, at the bloc level, with China, the U.S., Russia as well as India.
Türkiye is among a few countries that have maintained good ties with Russia and Ukraine during the conflict between the two countries. It brokered a grain deal under the shadow of conflict and hosted prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine.
In Syria, the two sides differ, with Russia backing the Assad regime while Türkiye has long opposed the regime's conflict with the opposition forces. Nevertheless, both Erdoğan and Syria's Bashar Assad signaled recently that they may take steps to normalize ties frozen since the civil war broke out in 2011.
