Military delegations from Turkiye, Syria, Russia to hold meeting for developing tripartite dialogue

Military delegations from Turkiye, Syria, and Russia will hold a meeting this month in the context of developing the tripartite dialogue that began at the end of last year, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said.

Akar told the Turkish newspaper Sozcu on February 5 that technical delegations from the three countries' ministries of defence and intelligence will meet as part of the dialogue, Middle East Monitor writes. No details as to the exact date for the meeting were given.

Consultations were launched on 28 December in Moscow between the defence ministers of Turkiye, Russia and Syria in the context of a process of normalising relations between Ankara and the Assad regime.

Ankara believes that these consultations can create grounds for a comprehensive political settlement for the situation in Syria, including the issue of Syrian refugees in Turkiye.

On December 15, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that he had proposed to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, that a tripartite meeting involving the two leaders and Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad be held, provided that this summit would be preceded by negotiations at the level of representatives of security services, ministers of defence and foreign affairs.