2nd meeting with Syrian regime could be held in mid-January: Top Turkish diplomat

ANKARA

Türkiye's second meeting with the Syrian regime could be in mid-January, Türkiye's foreign minister said on Saturday.

Speaking to the reporters in Brazil about his recent phone call with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, Mevlut Cavusoglu said: "Lavrov asked me when we will hold the tripartite ministerial meeting," and we agreed to hold it in 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.

On the possible location for the meeting, he said: "So it could be in Moscow. It could be in a third country. We (Cavusoglu and Lavrov) both said the same thing," in the phone call.

"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 said, adding that “we need to make it work.”

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

"We support territorial integrity (of Syria). But there must be stability here as well, and some steps must be taken in this political process. We have been saying this for a long time," Cavusoglu said.

For normalization 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 discussed cooperation plans for 2023 between the foreign ministries, including further coordination of steps for the resolution of the Syrian issue."

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