Russia, Turkey eyeing fighter jet deal - Kremlin

Russia and Turkey are interested to land a possible deal on fighter jets, Russian Presidential Aide Yury Ushakov said on Friday.

Ushakov recalled that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan personally examined latest Russian technologies at the International Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS-2019) on August 27, including fifth-generation fighter jets Su-57 and 4++ generation fighter jets Su-35.

"These talks relate to an extremely sensitive topic, so it is premature to talk about it now. Many people observed Erdogan's stay in Zhukovsky, what he looked at, what we showed. Both the Turkish side and our side have interest in this," Ushakov told reporters in Moscow, adding that another Russian-Turkish contract on the delivery of the S-400 air defence systems is close to completion.

Trilateral summit in Ankara

Turkey, Russia and Iran will gather for a trilateral summit on Monday as a follow-up of the landmark Astana talks on Syria.

Bilateral meetings are also expected on the occasion, Ushakov said, where military cooperation is an agenda for the meeting between Erdogan and Putin who will attend the summit.

"At the bilateral meeting, the leaders, in addition to Syria, will discuss some important questions of the implementation of the agreements that were reached in Moscow and cooperation in the military-technical domain," he said.

With Iranian President Hasan Rouhani, Putin will discuss the establishment of an alternative payment to SWIFT. The issue is gaining momentum as Russian oil companies show interest in Iranian oilfield development.

Idlib on the agenda

The summit in the Turkish capital will deal with developments in Idlib, refugees and a political solution to the lingering conflict in Syria.

“It is aimed to evaluate the developments in Syria, especially in Idlib, to end the conflict environment, to provide the necessary conditions for the voluntary repatriation of refugees and to consult the joint steps to be taken in the future in order to establish a permanent political solution,” the Turkish presidency said in a statement.

Turkey, Russia, and Iran are the guarantor countries that brokered a cease-fire in Syria in December 2016, leading to the Astana, Kazakhstan talks, which are running parallel to the Geneva peace talks. So far 13 rounds of talks have been conducted in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on protesters with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and millions more displaced by the conflict.

Turkey and Russia agreed last September to turn Idlib into a de-militarised zone where acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.

The Syrian regime and its allies, however, have consistently broken the terms of the cease-fire, launching frequent attacks inside the de-escalation zone.

The zone is currently inhabited by about 4 million civilians, including hundreds of thousands of people displaced in recent years by regime forces from cities and towns throughout the war-weary country.