Turkey’s deepening crisis with Europe has re-energized its desire to expand ties with Russia. Ankara clearly wants to show that it has powerful friends that can reduce its dependence on the United States and Europe. This also works to Moscow’s advantage, given its problems with the West and barely concealed desire to undermine NATO.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Moscow last week came at an opportune moment for Ankara in this regard. Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin held talks within the context of the High-Level Cooperation Council established between the two countries in 2010, which was meeting for the sixth time.

Following their talks, Erdogan and Putin stressed their joint desire to attain and surpass the levels of economic cooperation that existed between the two countries before the downing of a Russian fighter jet by Turkey in November 2015 that sent economic and political ties plummeting overnight.

This was also the fourth time the two leaders had met since Erdogan apologized last summer for the jet incident, following which both sides agreed to let bygones be bygones.