The 20th Astana talks on Syria started in Kazakhstan.
The talks started at a hotel in Astana at 07:00 with bilateral technical meetings between the guarantor countries.
The Turkish delegation held its first meeting within the scope of the 20th meeting held in the capital of Kazakhstan with the Iranian delegation.
The delegations led by Deputy Foreign Minister Mihail Bogdanov from Russia and Ali Asgar Haci, the Political Affairs Advisor to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, attend the talks, where Turkey is represented by the delegation led by Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akçapar.
There are also delegations from Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon with observer status.
At the meetings, the Damascus administration is attended by the delegations headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Ayman Susan, and the opposition by Ahmet Tuma.
There are also delegations from Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon, who have observer status in the meetings attended by the UN Special Envoy for Syria, Geir O. Pedersen.
In the two-day meetings, the parties discuss the change in the regional situation around Syria and the latest developments in the field.
In addition, issues such as the humanitarian situation, rebuilding the country and creating the conditions for the return of Syrian refugees to their countries are discussed at the meeting, as well as confidence-building measures such as the fight against terrorism in Syria, the release of hostages and the search for missing persons.
Quadrilateral consultation meeting expected on “Roadmap”
Today, a four-way consultation meeting is expected between the Deputy Foreign Ministers of Turkey, Russia and Iran and the Syrian administration on the “Road Map” for the normalization of Syria-Turkey relations.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Bogdanov made statements to the press before the talks.
Bogdanov said that this time, the most important meeting within the scope of Astana talks was the four-party meeting for the normalization of Syria-Turkey relations.
Stating that the delegations of Russia, Turkey, Iran and Syria will come together for this, Bogdanov said, “We are currently interested in the normalization of relations between Damascus and Ankara. This is a very important process. Many problems have accumulated in the intervening 12 years. Ministers of Foreign Affairs came together. Now we are working on the ‘Roadmap’ of this process.” used the phrase.