MOSCOW, May 27. /ITAR-TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and visiting Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu will discuss issues of Ukraine and Syria and preparation to a meeting of the bilateral top-level co-operation council at a meeting of the joint strategic planning group. Lavrov said this on Tuesday opening the meeting in the Russian capital.

“Along with the intergovernmental commission for trade and economic co-operation and a civil forum our task is to prepare in detail a meeting of a top-level co-operation council which will be held in the second half of this year,” he said.

“We assume that according to our agreements at this meeting we will consider the situation in bilateral issues, drafting of intergovernmental and interdepartmental documents and will debate topical issues on international agenda,” Lavrov noted, adding that “Our foreign political agenda is traditionally intensive and our co-operation brings a positive result on most trends and permits to move forward.”

The Russian foreign minister added that this also concerned current situation in the Middle East, including Syria, North Africa, the Transcaucasia and Central Asia. “Certainly, we will continue discussion that our leaders began on Ukraine and everything that is related with the country,” Lavrov added.

For his part, Davutoglu noted that the strategic planning joint group would give an opportunity to discuss regularly topical international and regional issues. “Ukraine is our common neighbor. We will take an opportunity to synchronize positions on this issue,” he said.

“Our relations are at a very high level in political, economic and cultural spheres,” Davutoglu added.

After the meeting, Sergei Lavrov stated that Russia and Turkey noted successful progress of implementing the South Stream gas project and construction of the first Turkish nuclear power plant Akkuyu.