2nd meeting with Syrian regime could be in January: Turkish FM

Türkiye’s second assembly with the Syrian regime could possibly be in mid-January, Türkiye’s overseas minister stated.

Speaking to the reporters on Saturday in Brazil about his latest telephone name along with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Mevlut Cavusoglu stated: “Lavrov asked me when we will hold the tripartite ministerial meeting,” and we agreed to carry it within the second half of January.

“We haven’t decided where to hold it (the meeting) yet. It could also be held in a third country. We talked about some countries,” Cavusoglu said.

“So what we are going to talk about, it goes upwards. First meeting at the technical level, military intelligence. Then the political stage, the foreign affairs, then a higher meeting in the future or not?” he stated, including that “we have to make it work.”

At a Wednesday meeting in Moscow, the Turkish, Russian, and Syrian regime’s defence ministers agreed to continue tripartite meetings to ensure stability in Syria and the wider region.

READ MORE: Will Türkiye-Syria ice-breaking meeting lead to normalisation?

“We assist territorial integrity (of Syria). But there should be stability right here as nicely, and a few steps should be taken on this political course of. We have been saying this for a very long time,” Cavusoglu said.

For normalisation with a country, there should be more meetings, he said, adding that no one can make progress with just one meeting.

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry also issued a statement on the phone call between Cavusoglu and Lavrov, and said: “The Ministers mutually congratulated the New Year and mentioned cooperation plans for 2023 between the overseas ministries, together with additional coordination of steps for the decision of the Syrian subject.”

Cavusoglu is at present in Brazil to attend the inauguration ceremony of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the nation’s president-elect.

Source: AFP