"turkey, russia: Celebrating booming trade
President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan at Putin�s country residence outside Moscow. Bilateral commercial ties �growing in accordance with the best possible scenario�
President Vladimir Putin and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan last week celebrated booming trade relations between the two former Cold War foes during Kremlin talks focused on energy and military affairs.
Putin -- who invited Erdogan for a private dinner at his lavish suburban Moscow estate evening -- told the Turkish prime minister that economic ties were growing in accordance with the best possible scenario as old tension waned.
Erdogan, accompanied by a group of 600 businessmen, was paying a return visit to Moscow after Putin in December became the first Russian leader to appear in Turkey in 32 years.
�Our most optimistic forecasts about economic cooperation have come true�, Putin told Erdogan as the two sat around a small table with their interpreters in the Kremlin�s gilded oval reception hall.
�According to our forecasts, trade volume could reach 15 billion dollars [annually] very soon�, Putin said.
Erdogan had forecast bilateral trade reaching up to 25 billion dollars by 2007 on his arrival to Moscow.
Trade between the two countries reached 10 billion dollars last year to make Russia Turkey�s second-largest trading partner after Germany. NTV television reported that Putin was �surprised� to hear the news.
The two Black Sea states have a raft of diplomatic disagreements that the two sides try to hide at public meetings at which prized economic trade -- in both private and public sectors -- takes center stage.
Both sides had previously accused the other of hiding "
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