MOSCOW, February 3. /TASS/. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin discussed in a telephone conversation with Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
"Nazarbayev hailed the successfully organized Congress of the Syrian National Dialogue in Sochi on January 30," the Kremlin’s press service said. "Implementation of the decisions, taken during the Congress, would be a major input in the political settlement in Syria under the auspices of the UN. In this context, they stressed the demand for continuing work in the Astana format".
"The presidents also discussed a few issues of the bilateral cooperation’s further development, including in modern technologies," the press service said. "They also discussed results of the Digital Agenda in the Era of Globalization forum, which was in Almaty on February 2."
Besides, the leaders discussed a schedule of contacts.
The telephone conversation was initiated by the Kazakh side.
On January 31, participants in the Syrian National Dialogue Congress, held in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, adopted a 12-point statement outlining positions on their country’s future. The document stipulates Syria should maintain its sovereignty and territorial integrity, stressing at the same the Syrian people hold the prerogative to determine the country’s future through elections.
The Syrians also requested United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres to assist them in setting up a constitutional commission, the mandate of which will be specified at the Geneva talks.
According to organizers, the Sochi Syrian Congress brought together 1,511 delegates representing all strata of Syrian society. Most of the participants (94.5%) were Arabs but there were also Kurds, Yazidis, Assyrians, Armenians, Circassians, Chechens, Dagestanis, Abkhazians, Turkomans and the Druze. Key regional and global players attended the event as observers. The forum’s key task was to organize a commission on the country’s new constitution.