UPDATE 2 - Erdogan, Putin meet at G20 Hamburg summit

UPDATES WITH REMARKS OF RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN AND EDITS THROUGHOUT

By Ilkay Guder

ANKARA (AA) - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan met his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin Saturday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany.

The two leaders discussed bilateral cooperation, the Syrian crisis, the TurkStream natural gas pipeline project and Akkuyu nuclear power plant, the Kremlin said in a statement.

"We have been keeping in contact on a regular basis. A great deal has been achieved recently, both towards a full-scale development of bilateral relations and to address a number of problems that concern us," Putin said, according to the statement.

Speaking to reporters before the meeting, Erdogan said he believed economic relations between both countries, developments in tourism and defense would strengthen bilateral relations.

"Above all, the expectations in the region regarding Syria and Iraq are very high," Erdogan had said.

The meeting between the two leaders lasted for approximately an hour.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov also participated in the meeting.

The leaders of world’s 20 major economies are holding the two-day summit in Hamburg where they discuss the global economy, climate change, the fight against terrorism and other international issues.

In June, Russian state-owned nuclear power company Rosatom signed an agreement with a Turkish consortium of contracting conglomerates, to sell a 49 percent stake in Turkey's Akkuyu nuclear power plant project.

The plant is estimated to meet around 6-7 percent of Turkey's electricity demand.

* Diyar Guldogan contributed to this report from Ankara.