DAVOS (Sputnik) – Turkey sees Russia as a strategic and major trading partner and hopes bilateral cooperation will improve in 2017, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek told Sputnik on Friday.
"We still need to make further progress on those issues, but progress is being made, we are optimistic … With Russia, we are back to normal, we are good old friends, and we want to enhance dialogue and cooperation and it's mutually beneficial. Russia is not only our great neighbor, but also a strategic partner and a major trading partner," Simsek said, asked about the future of Russia-Turkey relations on agriculture and visa regime issues in 2017.