ANKARA, January 15. /TASS/. During his trip to Moscow, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to discuss with President Vladimir Putin cooperation in the light of the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, Turkish president’s Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin told a news conference in Ankara on Tuesday.

"During a one-day visit on January 23, President Erdogan will discuss among other issues the situation in Idlib and cooperation with Russia within the framework of the US decision to withdraw troops from Syria," he said.

Kalin reiterated that "the aims of Turkey in Idlib remain the same". "Our task is to ensure the safety of people and property of the local population," he said.

On Tuesday, Erdogan told reporters that he planned to meet with Putin on January 23. He also said that "a trilateral meeting with [President of Iran Hassan] Rouhani and Putin is on the agenda".

On January 10, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said a summit of Turkey, Russia and Iran on the Syrian settlement was planned within the next few weeks. He said a meeting of the Turkish and Russian presidents was planned shortly.

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that preparations for Erdogan’s visit to Russia were underway but no dates had been set.

US President Donald Trump said on December 19 that the United States had defeated ISIS (Islamic State, a terrorist organization banned in Russia) in Syria, which was the only reason for the US troops being there, so all US troops would be pulled out of Syria. According to US officials, the US would withdraw its entire force of 2,000 service members from Syria within 60 to 100 days. Along with this, the Pentagon stressed that the campaign against Islamic State was not over and that the United States would continue working with their partners and allies to defeat the terror group.