MOSCOW, January 23. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan reaffirmed the need for coordination of steps for resolution of sharp issues in the Middle East and in Transcaucasia during their meeting on the UN sidelines, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced.

"The sides had an exchange of opinions on a number of international stories. The sides reaffirmed the demand for coordination of our countries’ steps in the interest of finding mutually acceptable resolutions to sharp regional problems - mainly, the situation in the Gaza Strip, in Syria, in the Middle East in general, as well as in the Black Sea area, and in Transcaucasia," the Ministry said.

The Ministry also announced that the two ministers "touched upon the implementation of key Russian-Turkish projects in energy and discussed the schedule of upcoming bilateral contacts."

"The sides had a substantial review of ongoing issues of bilateral trade and economic cooperation," the Ministry said. "The sides underscored the importance of further joint work in the interest of upholding and further expansion of mutually beneficial ties.".