Turkey and Russia decided not to escalate their disputes over a Syria-bound passenger plane forced to land in Turkey in October, Russian Ambassador to Turkey Vladimir Ivanovski told reporters on Friday.

The plane was carrying "spare parts of anti-aircraft radar" which was installed in Russia according to an agreement in 2004, said the Russian ambassador.

Ivanovski argued that the Russian side is not to blame "since the cargo did not endanger the passengers." He, however, complained that Russian embassy officials were not allowed to go to the aircraft to reach Russian passengers.

Ankara, on their part, maintained that the transportation company should notify Ankara about the dual-purpose cargo, in line with the obligation derived from 1944 Chicago Convention on Civil Aviation.

The Russian ambassador's remarks came ahead of a remarkable visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to Turkey's largest city of Istanbul on Dec. 3 for the Turkey-Russia High Level Cooperation Council.

Ivanovski said he did not expect the issue to be a topic of talks during Putin's visit. As a matter of fact, both sides have agreed to "close the case," according to the Russian ambassador.

Putin was likely to express concern on NATO's deployment of Patriot missile system on Turkish territory.

The ambassador stressed that Russia accepted Turkey's right for defense and understood that the system was not for the purpose of establishing a no-fly zone inside Syria. However, such a move might "slowly drag NATO into the Syrian issue." Endi

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