Russian and Turkish Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Abdullah Gul had a telephone conversation upon the latter’s initiative on 29 January. The two leaders exchanged views on the Caucasian region and Russian-Turkish cooperation in international affairs, news agencies reported. The both sides were pleased with the joint work in the Black Sea region and discussed European security issues, including the Russian initiative to develop a treaty on European security. Gul expressed his appreciation for Russia’s contribution to the international efforts to achieve progress on the Nagorno-Karabakh settlement, a statement by the Kremlin press service said. The central event in Russian-Turkish relations in the near future will be the planned visit by the Russian president to Turkey. The agreement on the visit planned for May was confirmed during the conversation. The talk between Gul and Medvedev came days after Medvedev hosted Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in the Krasnaya Polyana ski resort near Sochi for talks on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, a territorial dispute between Baku and Yerevan.