Russian presidential aide: If Erdogan attends SCO summit in Astana, Russia will seek to arrange Putin's meeting with him

MOSCOW. June 17 (Interfax) - If Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan goes to a Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Astana on July 3-4, the Russian side will try to arrange Russian President Vladimir Putin's meeting with him, presidential aide Yury Ushakov said.

"I assume that if the Turkish president participates in the SCO summit as an invited guest, we will certainly try to hold a substantive one-to-one meeting between the presidents of Russia and Turkey," Ushakov told journalists after being asked about the prospects for a Putin-Erdogan meeting on the sidelines of the SCO summit.

"Indeed, the time has come [for such a meeting], and both Moscow and Ankara understand this," he said.