MOSCOW, September 24. /TASS/. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not disclose the schedule of upcoming bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, neither confirming nor denying the possibility of a meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syrian leader Bashar Assad announced by Turkish media.
"For now, we prefer not to talk about the details of the program or the schedules of bilateral meetings. Some multilateral processes are still underway, especially concerning third parties. These should still be the primary sources of this information," Peskov said in response to journalists' request to say whether an invitation to participate in the BRICS summit had been extended to Assad and whether such a meeting was being prepared on the sidelines of the event.
Peskov added that preparations for the summit in Kazan "are now in their final stages." "This will be a major international event. We can already say this with confidence," the spokesman said.
On June 28, the Turkish president announced his willingness to restore diplomatic relations with Damascus, which had been severed in 2012. On July 12, he instructed Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to meet with his counterparts and develop a roadmap for the normalization process. According to Erdogan, Syria's territorial integrity is a key interest for Turkey. Ankara emphasizes that dialogue should proceed without any preconditions, particularly concerning the presence of Turkish troops in the Arab Republic.
In early August, Russian Presidential Special Envoy for the Middle East and Africa and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told reporters that Moscow supports the normalization of relations between Turkey and Syria, the promotion of the negotiation process and preparations for a meeting between the leaders of the two countries. However, he said, such a meeting "requires serious preparation."