Moscow. June 20. INTERFAX - Representatives of the Russian Federation, Iran, Syria and Turkey on Tuesday in Astana began discussing the provisions of the roadmap for the normalization of relations between Damascus and Ankara, the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.
The quadrilateral consultations were held at the level of deputy Foreign Ministers, the Russian side was represented by the Special Representative of the President of the Russian Federation for the Middle East and Africa, Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, noted on Smolenskaya Square.
"In accordance with the agreements reached at the meeting of the foreign ministers of the four countries in Moscow on May 10, the participants began discussing the elements of the roadmap for the restoration of Syrian-Turkish interstate relations in coordination with the work carried out by the Ministries of Defense and special services," the statement published on the website of the Foreign Ministry said.
In May, the Foreign Ministers of Russia, Iran, Syria and Turkey held talks in Moscow. Opening the meeting then, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that "the optimal result of our communication today could be an agreement to instruct experts to prepare a draft roadmap for Syrian-Turkish normalization for the next ministerial meeting, which will then be reported to the heads of our states."
"We see in this document a number of principles that all participants of the quadrilateral format, as we understand, support. I mean, first of all, the unwavering commitment to the sovereignty, territorial integrity, independence and unity of all the countries participating in the meeting, the goals and principles of the UN Charter," the Russian Foreign Minister said.
Lavrov stressed that "we are all interested in the speedy restoration of good-neighborly relations between Syria and Turkey on an equal and mutually beneficial basis."
On December 8, 2022, consultations were held in Moscow between the heads of the military departments of Russia, Syria and Turkey, these were the first talks between the defense ministers of Turkey and Syria in 11 years. At the meeting, an agreement was reached on the establishment of a joint trilateral commission.
It was expected that after these consultations, a meeting of the foreign ministers of the three countries was to take place, which would discuss the possibility of holding talks between the leaders of Turkey and Syria, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Bashar al-Assad. Later it became known that Iran would also take part in consultations at the level of foreign ministers.
