Opening the meeting, President Putin expressed the hope that the best traditions of relations between Russia and Turkey would be maintained and that cooperation would reach a new level.
The President pointed out that relations between the two countries had been developing dynamically. The implementation of the large Blue Stream energy project was almost finished, which, according to Mr Putin, again confirmed the reliability of the Russian-Turkish partnership.
Russia and Turkey were active members in the international coalition against terrorism; and Mr Putin expressed hope that relations would continue to get stronger in that area of cooperation.
The Russian leader also congratulated Mr Erdogan on the convincing victory of his party in the elections on November 3, 2002.
The fight against terrorism and the situation in Iraq were discussed during the talks. Items on the agenda also included economic and military-technical cooperation.