TURKEY-RUSSIA SUMMIT CANCELLED

Moscow, 4 Rabi’ul Awwal 1437/15 December 2015 (MINA) – Russia on Monday said a summit between President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan pencilled in for December 15 had been cancelled, with ties between the two leaders in tatters over the downing of a Russian warplane.

The meeting between the two strongmen had been agreed at the G20 summit in Turkey on November 16, just over a week before Ankara shot down one of Moscow’s warplanes at the Syrian border, World Bulletin quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

“It will not take place. It is not planned,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists.

Putin and Erdogan have been locked in a war of words over the shooting down of the Russian jet, which led to the deaths of a pilot and of a soldier sent out on a rescue mission, and prompted Moscow to slap economic sanctions on Turkey in retaliation.

A furious Putin also snubbed a meeting with Erdogan at a climate summit in France late last month and has refused to take phone calls from the Turkish leader.

Tensions remain high, with Russia on Sunday claiming that one of its destroyers in the Aegean Sea had fired warning shots to avoid a collision with a Turkish fishing boat. (T/P006/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)