MOSCOW (Reuters) - NATO has no right to tell Ankara who it can build relations with and Turkey will develop its ties with Russia despite Western views, Russian news agencies quoted Turkish Ambassador to Russia Umit Yardım as saying on Thursday.

“In no way can NATO limit our contacts with other countries ... It means NATO has no right to dictate its terms and tell us who we should or should not meet and communicate with,” Yardım was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying.

Yardım also said that Russia and Turkey had agreed to step up their contacts on Syria, TASS reported.