ASTANA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th June, 2023) Moscow hopes to achieve progress on a roadmap for normalization of relations between Turkey and Syria, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Tuesday.
"You know that on May 10 a meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia, Syria, Turkey and Iran took place in Moscow. We have been instructed to prepare a roadmap for this process of normalizing relations between Syria and Turkey. We hope that we will also make progress in this work," Bogdanov said ahead of the 20th round of talks in the Astana format.
The Russian diplomat noted that the deputy foreign ministers of the four countries will address the Syrian settlement and relations between Damascus and Ankara in Kazakhstan's capital later on Tuesday, adding that he hopes the talks will be constructive.
Bogdanov also said that this is an important process that should be built on agreed principles of mutual respect for territorial integrity, unity and sovereignty.
The previous round of consultations took place in Astana from November 22-23, 2022.
The war in Syria has been going on since 2011, with President Bashar Assad's forces battling various armed groups. In 2017, Russia, Turkey, and Iran launched a mediation group on the Syrian settlement in Astana. In January 2018, the Russian city of Sochi hosted a congress of the Syrian National Dialogue, the first such attempt since the beginning of the conflict to bring together an inclusive pool of Syrian political forces. The main outcome of the congress was the decision to create a constitutional committee, which will operate out of Geneva and whose main task will be to prepare for constitutional reform in Syria.�
