You're reading: Poroshenko and Erdogan discuss further cooperation of Ukraine and Turkey

BRUSSELS - Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed the prospects for further promoting cooperation between their countries during a phone call on June 27.

“Prior to that, I had a telephone conversation with Recep Erdogan at the Turkish president’s initiative. We agreed that all of our existing projects would be continued and would be broadened,” the Ukrainian leader told reporters in Brussels.

Turkey is a strategic partner for Ukraine, and Ukraine, for its part, is a strategic partner for Turkey, he said.

When commenting on reports that the Turkish president apologized to the Russian leadership for the shooting down of a Russian Sukhoi Su-24 plane, Poroshenko said “as far as I read this report, it said about sympathy for the family of the killed [pilot], and I think that it is an absolutely understandable position of Turkey’s president.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier that Erdogan had expressed regret and had offered an apology for the shooting down of a Russian plane last fall.