Russian Delegation At Astana Talks On Syria Holds Bilateral Meeting With Turkish Group

The Russian delegation at the Astana talks on Syria, currently underway in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan, is holding a bilateral meeting with its Turkish colleagues, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Thursday

NUR-SULTAN (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 25th April, 2019) The Russian delegation at the Astana talks on Syria, currently underway in the Kazakh capital of Nur-Sultan, is holding a bilateral meeting with its Turkish colleagues, a Sputnik correspondent reported on Thursday.

The Russian delegation is led by Special Presidential Envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev, while the Turkish group is led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal.

"We are also happy to meet [the Russian delegation] in our joint talk to try to advance the process for the resolution of the crisis in Syria. I hope our meetings today and tomorrow will be useful. We are also keen on making progress on the formation of the constitutional committee," Onal said.

Lavrentyev, in turn, said that he expected to discuss the situation on the ground in Syria, the problem of refugees, as well as the constitutional committee with the Turkish delegation.

The agreement to form a constitutional committee was reached during the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in the Russian city of Sochi back in January 2018. The panel is expected to be made up of representatives of the government and opposition, Syrian experts, members of civil society, independents, tribal leaders, and women. Russia, Turkey and Iran, as guarantors of ceasefire in the Arab republic, have been facilitating the committee's establishment, while the United Nations has been helping to draft the list of the committee's future members.

The Russians already met with the Iranian delegation earlier on Thursday, and began its consultations with the Syrian delegation.

A trilateral meeting of the Syrian ceasefire guarantor states Russia, Turkey and Iran will happen on Thursday afternoon.