Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad visits Moscow to talk Turkish-Syrian reconciliation

Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin in Moscow, March 15, 2023. © Sputnik/Vladimir Gerdo/Pool via REUTERS

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Russian President Vladimir Putin received Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad in Moscow on Wednesday (March 16th), at a time when the Kremlin is stepping up its efforts to reconcile Turkey and Syria and assert its diplomatic weight despite its isolation on Ukraine.

Advertising

Read more

These efforts come as diplomatic cards have been dramatically reshuffled in the Middle East with the Beijing-sponsored restoration of diplomatic relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia. For the Kremlin, orchestrating a reconciliation between Turkey and Syria, blurred since 2011, would display Moscow's diplomatic weight despite its isolation in the West since its offensive in Ukraine.

The meeting between Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad began around 14:<> GMT, according to images broadcast on Russian television. Several ministers participated in this meeting, which will be followed by a tête-à-tête between the two leaders. "We are in constant contact and our relations are developing," Putin said at the beginning of the meeting, hailing the "important results" achieved by Moscow and Damascus in the "fight against international terrorism". For his part, Bashar al-Assad expressed his support for Moscow's military offensive in Ukraine and said he hoped his visit would mark "a new stage in Syrian-Russian relations".

Towards a Turkish-Syrian reconciliation?

But one of the main topics on the agenda of this meeting should be the reconciliation process between Ankara and Damascus that Moscow seeks to accelerate, including by organizing a summit with Bashar al-Assad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "Relations between Turkey and Syria will certainly be affected in one way or another" by the talks between Vladimir Putin and Bashar al-Assad, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

Despite their divergent interests in Syria and Turkey's membership in NATO, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan have cooperated closely in recent years, which explains Moscow's role in the attempt at Turkish-Syrian reconciliation. Diplomats from Russia, Turkey, Syria and Iran are due to meet this week in Moscow to prepare for a meeting between their foreign ministers ahead of a possible presidential summit.

At the end of December, the Turkish and Syrian defense ministers had already met in Moscow with their Russian counterpart, a first since 2011.

(With AFP

)

Newsletter Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

Read on on the same topics:

  • Russia
  • Syria
  • Turkey
  • Bashar al-Assad
  • Vladimir Poutine