ANKARA, April 7. /TASS/. The Russian, Iranian, Syrian and Turkish foreign ministers are in preparations to hold a meeting on the normalization of relations between Ankara and Damascus, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a press conference following talks with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on Friday.
"We need to hold a meeting of foreign ministers. Preparations on the issue are underway and our deputies discussed this at their meeting in the Russian capital," Lavrov said.
"The preparations also involve deciding on a date that works for all four [foreign] ministers," Russia’s top diplomat added.
According to Lavrov, the very fact that meetings of defense ministers, heads of intelligence services as well of deputy foreign ministers have been held since December 2022 indicates that the normalization process has begun.
"This cannot be a one-step process and we have both agreed on this," Lavrov stated, speaking about his meeting with Cavusoglu.
"As we say, such issues cannot be solved overnight. We need to establish lines of communication, build trust, increase transparency, but also agree on how to ultimately find a balance between the legitimate interests of this process’ participants," Lavrov added.
The Russian Foreign Ministry announced earlier that the top diplomats from Russia, Iran, Syria and Turkey discussed a four-party ministerial session at their meeting in Moscow on April 3-4.
Consultations between the defense ministers of Russia, Syria and Turkey took place in Moscow on December 28, 2022, as part of efforts to normalize relations between Ankara and Damascus.
The meeting’s participants reached an agreement to create a trilateral commission. A meeting between top diplomats was expected to follow the consultations to discuss the possibility of talks between Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Bashar Assad of Syria. Later, it was reported that Iran would join the consultations at the level of foreign ministries.
Erdogan told reporters on December 15, 2022, that he had suggested Russian President Vladimir Putin host a trilateral meeting involving the Syrian president, adding that the summit should be preceded by a meeting between officials from intelligence agencies, as well as defense and foreign ministries.