ANKARA (Sputnik) – Russian and Turkish foreign ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Mevlut Cavusoglu, discussed preparations for the upcoming meeting of the two countries’ leaders during phone talks on Sunday, a source from the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
Earlier in the week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the Russian and Turkish presidents, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, could have met in Moscow on March 5 or 6.
“Our minister has held talks with his Russian counterpart, Lavrov. [The sides] discussed issues ahead of the leaders’ meeting,” the source said.
Earlier on Sunday, Peskov said that the presidents were set to address the implementation of the Sochi arrangements on Syria during the meeting in Moscow.
The Sochi deal was signed by Putin and Erdogan in September 2018 and envisaged the creation of a demilitarized zone in the Syrian northwestern province of Idlib, which remains a stronghold of terrorists, along the contact line between the armed opposition and the Syrian government forces.
After tensions in Idlib intensified earlier in February amid tit-for-tat strikes between Syrian government troops and Turkish units that maintain observation posts in northwest Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Ankara had failed to implement a number of key commitments outlined in the bilateral deal on Idlib and failed to distinguish between Syria’s armed opposition, which is ready for dialogue, and terrorist groups. Turkey has insisted that it implements its commitments.
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