23-11-2024 11:03 PM Jerusalem Timing

Russia Says Putin-Erdogan Summit Cancelled

Russia Says Putin-Erdogan Summit Cancelled

Moscow said on Monday a summit between President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan pencilled in for December 15 had been cancelled

Moscow said on Monday 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 Ankara’s 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 on November 24. Erdogan and Putin

"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.

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 said that one of its destroyers in the Aegean Sea had fired warning shots to avoid a collision with a Turkish fishing boat.