MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. The Russian-Turkish summit that focused on the situation in Syria's Idlib has ended in the Kremlin. The meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan lasted almost 6 hours.

Russia, Turkey and Iran signed the memorandum, according to which the Idlib province became part of one of the four de-escalation zones in Syria, in May 2017. In September 2018, the Russian and Turkish presidents reached an agreement to set up a demilitarized zone in that province along the line of engagement of Syrian government forces and the armed opposition. Despite the agreements, extremists were not withdrawn from Idlib and continued to shell government forces’ positions. Since then, the situation in the region has deteriorated several times, including at the beginning of 2020.