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On the Russian side, the meeting was attended by Federation Council Speaker Valentina Matviyenko.

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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr President,

I am delighted to see you. Welcome to Russia. I know that you have a busy programme here.

We are very pleased that our relations with the Republic of Türkiye are expanding across the board, including parliamentary ties.

Just recently, President of Türkiye Recep Tayyip Erdogan and I met in Astana, and we will see each other again at the BRICS summit in Kazan in October where we are scheduled to have a bilateral meeting.

I would like to note that cooperation between Türkiye and Russia is making active progress along almost every avenue, including economic ties, social projects, and interaction between the foreign ministries. We are good neighbours overall, working for the benefit of our nations, and we are largely succeeding.

There are specific issues that we need to review. We will briefly exchange views on all of them.

Welcome again.

President of the Grand National Assembly of Türkiye Numan Kurtulmus (retranslated): First of all, I would like to express my gratitude for your warm welcome and your kind hospitality. I would like to convey the sincere greetings and best wishes from our President, Mr Erdogan.

Today is the third day of our visit. Our programme is very rich indeed. I met with Ms Matviyenko; we had a very extensive discussion on bilateral relations. I had the honour to speak at the assembly and meet with members of both houses [of the Russian parliament]. I also had the opportunity to visit the Diplomatic Academy, where I met with young people.

I also visited the Moscow Cathedral Mosque and met with representatives of the clergy. I spoke at a ceremony at the Yunus Emre Institute.

This visit has been productive for me, and I am taking home the fondest memories and impressions. I really do hope that my trip to St Petersburg will be just as rewarding.

This morning, we held a meeting at the Federation Council, where I took the opportunity to express my vision of Turkish-Russian relations. We are now in a phase where deep ties are being forged on the basis of a shared history and neighbourly relations, and I hope that inter-parliamentary relations will contribute to the development of our solid relations, which grow deeper day by day within the framework of priorities outlined by our presidents.

We are very pleased that we hold similar views on the global agenda and the deep crisis that is now raging in the Middle East. Israel’s attack on Palestine is not merely a regional problem, not only a Palestinian problem; it is a problem of the international community. It is gratifying that we are in agreement on this.

I would like to note with pleasure how similar our peoples and our priorities are, and I want to say that we have never supported the sanctions or embargoes that were introduced against the Russian Federation. The West is using these measures to punish the Russian Federation; this is wrong, and we have never supported this approach.

During our meetings, we discussed what steps can be taken, and what else we can do to advance our relations.

Thank you.

I would like to thank Ms Matviyenko for her warm and friendly invitation and for the candid dialogue we had here in Moscow. I think that the progress we are making in inter-parliamentary relations will help expand our relations in general.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you. Please convey my best wishes to President of Türkiye, Mr Erdogan. I am looking forward to seeing him in Kazan. Our bilateral meeting is scheduled for October 23.

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