1. Wide of Russia's Energy Minister walking to podium
2. Cutaway audience
3. SOUNDBITE (Russian) Alexander Novak, Russian Energy Minister:
"Our relationship is building again. Our president Vladimir Putin coming here, and attending the World Energy Congress in Istanbul, shows that he gives great importance to the normalisation of our relationship, especially our trade and economic relations. Our leaders have given us the task for the next few years to increase the growth of our economic ties to 100 (b) billion US dollars which would be four times compared to the previous year."
Russia's energy minister pledged in Istanbul on Wednesday to work on increasing the trade volume between Turkey and Russia.
Speaking at a Turkey-Russia business forum, Alexander Novak said his country's president was committed to improving relations between Moscow and Ankara that had soured when Turkey shot down a Russian plane at the Syrian border.
Turkey and Russia on Monday signed a deal to build a gas pipeline from Russia as the two countries pressed ahead with efforts to normalise ties.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, watched as their countries' energy ministers sealed an intergovernmental agreement for the "Turkish Stream" project that would bring gas from Russia to Turkey.
It would then be distributed to European Union nations.
The project, which had previously been suspended amid tensions between the two countries, was signed on the sidelines of the World Energy Congress.
