Barack Obama urges Turkey to ease Russia tension

US President Barack Obama has urged Turkey to reduce tensions with Russia, which are hampering efforts to fight Islamic State militants in Syria.

But he stressed that US support for NATO ally Turkey’s security remained steadfast.

Obama met Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan in Paris, at an international climate summit, a week after Turkish jets shot down a Russian warplane along the Syrian border.

“The United States supports Turkey’s right to defend itself and its airspace and its territory,” Obama said.

“We discussed how Turkey and Russia can work together to de-escalate tensions and find a diplomatic path to resolve this issue.”

Obama told Erdogan that the Islamic State militant group, also known as IS, was the entity that all sides needed to pursue, echoing a message he delivered to Russian President Vladimir Putin, in Paris, on Monday.

“We all have a common enemy, and that is ISIL, and I want to make sure that we focus on that threat,” Obama said.

Tensions between Russia and Turkey have complicated US efforts to prod Moscow into steering its military might towards Islamic State, rather than against the moderate Syrian opposition.

Putin supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while Obama and Erdogan want him to go.

The downed plane incident has been exacerbated by the strong personalities of the Russian and Turkish leaders. Obama’s relationship with Putin is tense, but direct.

His relationship with Erdogan is also not close, though the two men are in contact frequently.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called for the opening of communication channels between Turkey and Russia to prevent further incidents.

Putin, who has signed a decree imposing economic sanctions on Turkey, has said Turkey shot down the jet because it wanted to protect supplies of oil from Islamic State militants.

Erdogan says that is “slander”.