Turkey, Russia sign joint declaration to remove trade restrictions, say reports

Istanbul: Russia agreed to lift remaining trade sanctions against Turkey on Monday. These sanctions were imposed in the wake of the shooting down by Turkish air forces of a Russian warplane over the Syrian border in 2015. [caption id=“attachment_1801103” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File image of Dmitri Medvedev. AFP[/caption] The state-run Anadolu news agency said a corresponding accord was signed on the sidelines of a summit of Black Sea regional leaders in Istanbul by Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey Mehmet Simsek and his Russian counterpart Arkady Dvorkovich. It said that the document was an important step towards the normalisation of economic relations and increasing trade volumes. The Russian government in a statement confirmed that the document “on the lifting of bilateral trade restrictions” was signed in the presence of Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim and Russian premier Dmitry Medvedev. There were no immediate details on the contents of the document but it is expected to again allow the import to Russia of tomatoes, a key Turkish agricultural export. The 24 November, 2015 shooting down of the Russian plane led to an unprecedented crisis in ties and prompted Russia to impose a raft of sanctions against Ankara. These included an effective ban on Russian package holidays to Turkey, ruining the 2016 tourism season in the country’s south. After a reconciliation deal in summer last year, relations have seen a rapid improvement with the two sides working together in a bid to end the Syria conflict.