Putin to meet Turkey’s Erdogan in China Sept 3: Kremlin

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian leader Vladimir Putin will hold a number of high-level bilateral meetings on the sidelines of Sept. 4-5 summit in Hangzhou, China, a Kremlin aide told reporters on Tuesday, August 30, Reuters reports.

Putin will hold talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on September 3 as the "process of normalization of relations between the two countries is under way," Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said.

After the Russian jet was shot down in November last year near the Syrian-Turkish border, Russia imposed trade restrictions on Ankara. However, the relations started to thaw after conciliatory moves from Ankara in July.

Both already met earlier this month in St Petersburg.

On September 4, Putin will discuss a need for "a new impetus in bilateral relations" with British Prime Minister Theresa May and he will also meet Saudi Arabia's powerful deputy crown prince Mohammed bin Salman to discuss Syrian crisis.

Ushakov also said that a previously agreed trilateral meeting of leaders from Russia, Germany and France, who were poised to discuss Ukraine's crisis, will not take place.

Instead, Putin will meet separately with French President Francois Hollande on September 4 - though the date is still being discussed - and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on September 5, Reuters says.

Ushakov said that the meeting was called off due to a rising tension over Crimea peninsula.

Putin is also due to talk to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on Sept 5.