Turkey's ties with Russia too strong to be broken by Macron: foreign minister

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg meets with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara, Turkey April 16, 2018. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey's ties with Russia are too strong to be broken by France's president, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday, after Emmanuel Macron said Ankara's support of missile strikes on Syria showed it had "separated" from Russia. At a joint news conference with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg in Ankara, Cavusoglu added that Turkey's relations with Russia were not an alternative to its ties with NATO, France and the United States. (Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu and Tulay Karadeniz; Writing by Daren Butler; Editing by Ece Toksabay)