BRUSSELS—The North Atlantic Treaty Organization urged "calm and de-escalation" in the wake of Turkey shooting down of a Russian jet fighter.

Speaking after an emergency meeting of alliance ambassadors, Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary general, said the alliance has repeatedly expressed solidarity with Turkey over violations of its airspace.

"This highlights the importance of having and respecting arrangements to avoid such incidents in the future," Mr. Stoltenberg said. "As we have repeatedly made clear, we stand in solidarity with Turkey and support the territorial integrity of our NATO Ally, Turkey."

The NATO statement came after the Turkish military shot down a Russian aircraft that Turkish and Western officials said had entered its airspace.

U.S. officials confirmed the Russian plane briefly crossed into Turkey. Mr. Stoltenberg confirmed that other allies had provided information that backed the Turkish account of the incident.

Inside the meeting of the ambassadors, allies agreed on the right of Turkey to defend its sovereign territory and the importance of supporting that. But allies also spoke about the importance of "clear heads" prevailing, according to an official.

President Barack Obama said Tuesday that Turkey had a right to defend its airspace and Russia's actions in Syria were an "ongoing problem." Speaking alongside Mr. Obama, French President Franç ois Hollande said Russia should focus on striking Islamic State but urged steps to prevent further escalation of tensions.

Turkish-Russian relations have been strained over Russian strikes against ethnic Turkmen fighters in Syria. Turkey had repeatedly warned against violations of its airspace, and NATO had warned against incursions in October.

The incident was the first of its kind since the end of the Cold War, and officials couldn't recall any other shooting of a Russian military aircraft by a NATO member since the 1950s.

Turkey called the emergency meeting on Tuesday to present its account of the incident to the alliance. At the meeting, Turkish officials played a recording of their pilots warning the Russians, an alliance official said. The Russians, the official said, had previously been warned about operations in that area and had been told by Ankara that they intended to down any warplane entering their territory without permission.

Mr. Stoltenberg said there has been contact between Ankara and Moscow on Tuesday but said so far there has been no direct contact between NATO and Russian officials.

Alliance officials said the Russian strikes that proceeded the Turkish action where in an area of Syria were there was no Islamic State presence.

"The priority now is for calm steps to defuse the tension, agree to measures to stop this happening again and to focus on the fight against ISIL," said Adam Thomson, the British ambassador to NATO.

Mr. Stoltenberg said he believes Moscow needs to refocus its efforts in Syria on militants with Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL.

"The common enemy should be ISIL," Mr. Stoltenberg said. "What you have seen is most of the attacks by Russia, so far, have been targeted to targets in parts of Syria where ISIL is not present."

The alliance on Tuesday was trying to balance a statement of Turkey's right to enforce its borders with comments that would de-escalate the situation.

Alliance officials have said they don't want to do anything that could derail France's efforts to pull Russia into a broad coalition against Islamic State.

In private discussions, allied ambassadors have spoke about the importance of avoiding overblown rhetoric that could hamper France's talks with Russia.

Tuesday's comments by Mr. Stoltenberg stood in contrast with the alliance's statement in October, following Russian incursions into Turkish airspace.

At the time, NATO said the allies "strongly protest these violations of Turkish sovereign airspace." The alliance called on Russia to "cease and desist" what they called "irresponsible behavior.'

Subscribe to WSJ: http://online.wsj.com?mod=djnwires

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

November 25, 2015 02:15 ET (07:15 GMT)