ANKARA, May 10. /TASS/. Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said that an agreement was reached to create a coordination center in Syria to fight terrorism.

"Our Syrian interlocutors were told that we must get rid of terrorists," the TV100 channel quoted the official as saying on Wednesday. "We won’t endure an additional flow of refugees [from Syria], we must prevent it. Therefore, our presence in Syria is very important. We work intensively with ministries in order to normalize living conditions in the regions where we are present. We discussed the necessity of working jointly and agreed on setting up a coordination center on Syrian soil," he added.

Akar did not specify who will participate in the operation of the coordination center and when it will open.

Meanwhile, a four-party meeting between the foreign ministers of Russia, Iran, Syria and Turkey is underway in Moscow. It is planned to exchange ideas on normalizing relations between Turkey and Syria, discuss humanitarian issues, the war on terrorism, the political process and the return of refugees. Bilateral meetings are also scheduled.

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.