Russian-Turkish conflict over plane downing not on Russian-U.S. relations agenda, U.S. waiting for investigation findings - Kerry
MOSCOW. Dec 19 (Interfax) - The conflict between Russia and Turkey over the downing of a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 bomber is no longer on the agenda of Russian-U.S. relations, but the U.S. is waiting to see final conclusions regarding the circumstances of the incident, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said.
"Russia and the United States have de-conflicted," Kerry said in an interview with TV host Sergey Brilev in a Saturday program on the Rossiya 1 (VGTRK) channel.
"We have de-conflicted with respect to Syrian airspace and flights we make into the eastern part of Syria to fight Daesh. Turkish airspace is controlled by Turkey; and Syrian space by Assad, though I think Russia now has considerable input to that control," Kerry said.
The United States does not know all the details of the incident in which the Turkish Air Force shot down the Russian warplane, he said.
"We don't know the details of that. We have some indications of it from our radar, we have some sense of what happened, but I think there's a formal process going on and exchange of information, and I don't want to comment on the conclusions of that without the information," he said.
"What is not clear are the circumstances of what happened in this particular instance," Kerry said.
"And I'm - I think everybody's waiting to see what is finalized with respect to that," he said.
Kerry referred to U.S. President Barack Obama's words that "a country's airspace belongs to the country and it has a right to defend it."