Erdoğan, Putin discuss coronavirus, Turkey-Russia ties and Syria in phone call

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan discussed the ongoing battle against the coronavirus with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in a phone call late Monday.

The two leaders touched upon possible Turkish-Russian joint efforts against COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

They also discussed Turkey-Russia bilateral relations, regional developments and Syria.

The pandemic has taken its toll on both Turkey and Russia.

Turkey, however, has recently seen a continuous decrease in both cases and deaths. The country recorded 44 COVID-19 deaths, 1,368 new cases and 1,825 recoveries on Sunday.

The coronavirus death toll in Turkey has risen to 4,140 while the total number of coronavirus cases in the country has reached 149,435.

Unfortunately, things have not been going so well for Russia recently. On Sunday, the country recorded under 10,000 new cases for the third time this week, but fluctuating figures since the start of May suggest it is too early to detect a clear downward trend.

The country currently has the second-highest number of infections in the world at 281,752.

On Sunday, the Russian health authorities confirmed 9,709 new cases. Two other days this week also saw fewer than 10,000 new cases.

The country also announced 94 new deaths, slightly down from Saturday's figure of 119, the highest daily toll yet.