BALADI NEWS
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Moscow on Tuesday for a meeting with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, the presidency said in a statement, days after a Turkish convoy was hit by an air strike in Syria.
The surprise visit comes as the forces of Bashar al-Assad made advances into the last rebel stronghold of Idlib in Syria's northwest and upped the stakes with Turkey in its months-long offensive backed by Russia.
Erdogan will pay a one-day visit to Moscow, the presidency said, without giving further details.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed the Putin-Erdogan meeting on August 27 to the Russian agencies.
He told the Interfax news agency that the talks would take place during the Maks international air show --about 40 kilometres (24 miles) from Moscow.
Turkey is a vocal opponent of Assad in Damascus and instead backs rebels fighting for his ouster.
But Ankara last year struck a deal with Moscow to protect the Idlib province from a massive government offensive.
Turkish officials on Monday "strongly" condemned an air strike on its military convoy heading through Idlib province, saying it was a violation of agreements with Syria.
The announcement of the visit also comes shortly after Erdogan and Putin on Friday agreed to "activate mutual efforts" to ease the situation in Idlib, according to the Kremlin.
Source: Daily Mail Online.