Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Stockholm, Sweden on Thursday to discuss issues including Ukraine and Syria, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
The Caucasus and Libya were also raised during the talks, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
The meeting comes shortly after Çavuşoğlu said Ankara was in touch with both Russia and Ukraine to ease tensions that have raised fears of an all-out war between the two countries.
“We are in contact with both sides and we are advising them to remain calm and ease tensions,” Çavuşoğlu said on Wednesday, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu agency.
He also said that Turkey doesn’t believe sanctions on Moscow were a solution to the crisis.
“As Turkey, what we believe in is a right balance between deterrence and dialogue,” he said. “Nobody can help Ukraine or another country through sanctions alone.”
Turkey has sought closer defence ties with Ukraine in recent years, including through sales of its domestically produced Bayraktar TB2 drones.
The technology was used against pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region in late October, sparking Russian accusations that Turkey was fuelling “militaristic sentiment”.
At a previous meeting with Lavrov, Çavuşoğlu insisted that Turkey hadn’t any responsibility for the incident.
Turkey has sought a working relationship with Russia over various other issues including Syria, where both maintain a sizable military presence but back different sides in the country’s conflict.