SOCHI, September 4. /TASS/. It is up to the Syrian people to decide the future of their country, as other states have no quick fixes for them, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday.
"It is important that we share basic approaches to the settlement of the Syrian crisis, such as respect for the country’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity," he told a news conference after talks with his visiting Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
"We understand that in order to begin the full-scale revival of this country, it is necessary to achieve national reconciliation and accord and we insist that it is up to Syrians themselves to decide Syria’s future - without imposing any ready-made solutions or models from outside," he stressed.
He said that he discussed the Syrian settlement with Erdogan. "We value very much our cooperation with Turkey on this track. In particular, we are constructively cooperating within the Astana format, which is the most efficient mechanism of international consultations on Syria," Putin stressed.
"When exchanging views on the situation in Libya, we reiterated our commitment to comprehensive settlement of the years-long crisis in this country on the basis of talks and the search for compromises, trying to avoid outbursts of violence and prevent the collapse of the Libyan state," he added.