Russia, Turkey cancel summit as tensions rise

A summit between the presidents of Russia and Turkey originally scheduled for Tuesday has been cancelled.

“It will not take place,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists on Monday, according to Agence France-Presse. “It is not planned.”

{mosads}Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan had agreed to the meeting before Turkish forces shot down a Russian fighter jet that Ankara says violated Turkish airspace.

Relations between the two countries have remained tense since, with Turkey’s NATO allies, including the United States, caught in the middle.

The meeting’s cancellation comes a day after an incident between a Turkish fishing boat and a Russian warship again highlighted the unease between the two nations and the potential for confrontation.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that the Smetlivy destroyer fired warning shots after a Turkish fishing boat came within 1,600 feet of the warship in the Aegean Sea. The destroyer is supporting Russia’s military campaign in Syria.

After the incident, Russia summoned a Turkish military attaché to warn of “potentially disastrous consequences from Ankara’s reckless actions toward Russia’s military contingent fighting against international terrorism in Syria,” according to a Russian Defense Ministry statement.

“Only by luck was tragedy avoided,” the statement said.