Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov. Sputnik / Alexey Filippov
The deputy foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, Iran and Syria may meet in Moscow in early April, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted as saying on March 27 by the RIA Novosti news agency.
The senior diplomat said that the situation in Syria and the normalization process between Ankara and Damascus are to be the key focus of the talks.
The normalization process achieved a major breakthrough last December when the defense ministers and intelligence chiefs of Turkey and Syria met in Moscow.
The Russian capital was supposed to host the follow up meeting between the deputy foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey, Iran and Syria early on in March. However, the meeting was canceled due to “technical reasons,” which were likely related to certain demands made by Damascus.
During his recent visit to Moscow, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stated that he would not meet his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan until Turkey’s “illegal occupation” of Syrian territory was over. To this day, the Turkish military holds vast parts of the country’s northern region.
Just a day after Bogdanov’s remarks, on March 28, Reuters confirmed in a report that the quadruple deputy foreign ministers meeting will be held. A senior Turkish official told the news agency that the talks will take place on April 3-4.
“This meeting is expected to be a continuation of the ministerial-level meetings that began during the normalization process,” the unnamed official said. “However, since there will be no ministerial-level participation and the meeting will be at a technical level, significant decisions are not expected.”
An unnamed senior Iranian foreign ministry official also confirmed to the agency that the meeting in Moscow will be in the first week of April.
The upcoming quadruple meeting in Moscow is meant to set the stage for the next phase of the Turkish-Syrian normalization process, which could see the foreign ministers or even the presidents of the two neighboring countries meeting. However, with Damascus current demands this will not likely happen before the upcoming general elections in Turkey next May.
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