ANKARA (Sputnik) — Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he had agreed with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to offer the conflicting sides to the Syrian crisis to continue the pace talks process on a new platform in Kazakhstan’s capital of Astana. According to Putin, such platform would complement the Geneva talks.
“A meeting [of conflicting sides] could take place in Kazakhstan … In any case this meeting is not an alternative to Geneva talks, and the actual influential representatives should take part in it,” Cavusoglu told a press conference.
He noted that after establishing a ceasefire in Syria, the meeting in a neutral country would be useful for both the opposition and representatives of the Syrian government, if they want to solve the crisis by political means. Cavusoglu added that this proposal was made by the Russian president.
The Syrian government delegation, as well as three opposition groups — the Riyadh-formed High Negotiation Committee (HNC), the Moscow-Cairo-Astana and the Hmeimim groups — have been taking part in the negotiations.
The UN Security Council Resolution 2254 was adopted in December 2015 and urges for settlement of Syrian conflict.
