MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday hosted his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, for talks expected to focus on the situation in Syria, the sale of Russian missiles to Turkey and other economic deals.
Greeting Erdogan at the start of their talks at the Kremlin in Moscow, Putin said they will discuss the delivery of Russia’s most advanced S-400 air defense missile systems to Turkey, a move that has vexed the US government, Turkey’s NATO partner.
Turkey’s purchase of the Russian missiles marked the first such contract for a NATO member. Turkey has ignored US demands to abandon the agreement, and Erdogan said Friday that deliveries of the S-400s will begin in July.
The Turkish leader noted that Washington had offered Ankara the US-made Patriot air defense system, but said the US offer is not as favorable as Russia’s.
The US and other NATO allies say the S-400s aren’t compatible with the alliance’s weapons systems. Washington has voiced concerns that their use by Turkey could compromise security of the state-of-the art US F-35 fighter jets that Turkey stands to receive.
Last week, US Vice President Mike Pence warned Turkey that it was risking its NATO membership and its participation in the F-35 program by failing to cancel the missile contract with Russia.
Putin and Erdogan said in remarks at the talks that they will also discuss the completion of a pipeline that will carry Russian gas to Turkey, the planned construction of a major electric plant and other economic projects.
Erdogan said the number of Russian tourists who visited Turkey last year reached 6 million, a record high.
Putin and Erdogan have developed a close personal rapport and held regular meetings. Erdogan addressed Putin as “my dear friend,” saying that the two countries plan to expand the annual volume of their trade, currently at about $25 billion, to $100 billion.
The Russian president said Monday’s talks will help deepen the “advanced, multi-faceted partnership” between the two countries.
Russia and Turkey also have closely coordinated moves on Syria, where they struck a deal in September to create a security zone in the northern province of Idlib. That agreement averted a Syrian army offensive that sparked fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.
Russia and Iran have thrown their support behind Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Turkey has backed his foes during the eight-year war. Despite that, the three countries have teamed up to broker a peace deal for Syria, united by their shared desire to undercut US clout in the region.
Russia and Turkey have opposed the US military presence in Syria and welcomed US President Donald Trump’s announcement of a planned pullout of American troops.
Russia’s Putin hosts Turkey’s Erdogan to discuss Syria, ties
Russia’s Putin hosts Turkey’s Erdogan to discuss Syria, ties
- Putin said they will discuss the delivery of Russia’s most advanced S-400 air defense missile systems to Turkey
Afghanistan says it thwarted Pakistani airstrike on Bagram Air Base as fighting enters fourth day
- The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years
- Pakistan accuses Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it
KABUL: Afghanistan thwarted attempted airstrikes on Bagram Air Base, the former US military base north of Kabul, authorities said Sunday, while cross-border fighting between Pakistan and Afghanistan stretched into a fourth day.
The fighting has been the most severe between the neighbors for years, with Pakistan declaring that it’s in “open war” with Afghanistan.
The conflict has alarmed the international community, particularly as the area is one where other militant organizations, including Al-Qaeda and the Daesh group, still have a presence and have been trying to resurface.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of harboring militant groups that stage attacks against it and also of allying with its archrival India.
Border clashes in October killed dozens of soldiers, civilians and suspected militants until a Qatari-mediated ceasefire ended the intense fighting. But several rounds of peace talks in Turkiye in November failed to produce a lasting agreement, and the two sides have occasionally traded fire since then.
On Sunday, the police headquarters of Parwan province, where Bagram is located, said in a statement that several Pakistani military jets had entered Afghan airspace “and attempted to bomb Bagram Air Base” at around 5 a.m.
The statement said Afghan forces responded with “anti-aircraft and missile defense systems” and had managed to thwart the attack.
There was no immediate response from Pakistan’s military or government regarding Kabul’s claim of attempted airstrikes on Bagram or the ongoing fighting.
Bagram was the United States’ largest military base in Afghanistan. It was taken over by the Taliban as they swept across the country and took control in the wake of the chaotic US withdrawal from the country in 2021. Last year, US President Donald Trump suggested he wanted to reestablish a US presence at the base.
The current fighting began when Afghanistan launched a broad cross-border attack on Thursday night, saying it was in retaliation for Pakistani airstrikes the previous Sunday.
Pakistan had said its airstrike had targeted the outlawed Pakistani Taliban, also known as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. Afghanistan had said only civilians were killed.
The TTP militant group, which is separate but closely allied with Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban, operates inside Pakistan, where it has been blamed for hundreds of deaths in bombings and other attacks over the years.
Pakistan accuses Afghanistan’s Taliban government of providing a safe haven within Afghanistan for the TTP, an accusation that Afghanistan denies.
After Thursday’s Afghan attack, Pakistani Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif declared that “our patience has now run out. Now it is open war between us.”
In the ongoing fighting, each side claims to have killed hundreds of the other side’s forces — and both governments put their own casualties at drastically lower numbers.
Two Pakistani security officials said that Pakistani ground forces were still in control on Sunday of a key Afghan post and a 32-square-kilometer area in the southern Zhob sector near Kandahar province, after having seized it during fighting Friday. The captured post and surrounding area remain under Pakistani control, they added. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, because they weren’t authorized to speak publicly.
In Kabul, the Afghan government rejected Pakistan’s claims. Deputy government spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat called the reports “baseless.”
Afghan officials said that fighting had continued overnight and into Sunday in the border areas.
The police command spokesman for Nangarhar province, Said Tayyeb Hammad, said that anti-aircraft missiles were used from the provincial capital, Jalalabad, and surrounding areas on Pakistani fighter jets flying overhead Sunday morning.
Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatulah Khowarazmi said that Afghan forces had launched counterattacks with snipers across the border from Nangarhar, Paktia, Khost and Kandahar provinces overnight. He said that two Pakistani drones had been shot down and dozens of Pakistani soldiers had been killed.
Fitrat said that Pakistani drone attacks hit civilian homes in Nangarhar province late Saturday, killing a woman and a child, while mortar fire killed another civilian when it hit a home in Paktia province.
There was no immediate response to the claims from Pakistani officials.
