MOSCOW. Jan 23 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a dear friend, thanked him for his personal contribution to the development of Russian-Turkish relations, noting the constructive nature of major bilateral projects as well as cooperation between Moscow and Ankara on Syria.
"Mr. President, dear friend, this is largely your personal merit because you pay so much attention to it," Putin said, welcoming Erdogan at the Kremlin.
"Our major projects are being implemented, and everything is going as planned," Putin said. "We are, of course, also dealing with regional security issues, in particular we actively cooperate on Syria."
"The practice of regular meetings and consultations" between the two presidents has yielded fruit, Putin said. For instance, in the first ten months of 2018 bilateral trade increased more than in the whole of 2017, and the number of Russian tourists was up 30% to a record-breaking figure of 6 million.
"This shows how our countries' citizens are perceiving change in the nature and the quality of Russian-Turkish relations," Putin said.