Russia, Turkey vow to consolidate cooperation

Russia and Turkey have vowed to enhance their cooperation with a purpose of increasing bilateral trade to hit 100 billion U.S. dollars by 2020.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov held a meeting on Wednesday with his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu in Istanbul to discuss the possibilities of cooperation between the two countries.Lavrov arrived earlier in the day in Istanbul to attend the third meeting of the Joint Strategic Planning Group with his Turkish counterpart Davutoglu.The Joint Strategic Planning Group is a sub-organ of the Turkey- Russia High Level Cooperation Council which was set up last year to strengthen bilateral economic ties.Speaking at a joint press conference following the meeting, Davutoglu said that the relation between Turkey and Russia has been growing and the contacts between two countries have become intense in recent years.Davutoglu noted that the meeting tackled ways to increase bilateral ties to hit 100 billion dollars during the coming years."We talked on the visa exemption policy between Turkey and Russia during this meeting and we agreed next meeting will be organized in the next month in Saint Petersburg," Davutoglu said.For his part, Lavrov said that the talks with Davutoglu dealt with the latest developments in the Middle East, mainly Iranian nuclear issue and Middle East peace process."It is Turkey and Russia's common wish to see stability and peace prevail in the global scale. Russia is forward to provide any solution to the disputes," Lavrov stressed.Russia has become Turkey's second largest trade partner in recent years. In 2012, the trade volume between Russia and Turkey reached 34 billion dollars.Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan set a new target of 100 billion dollars in trade volume by 2020.