During their joint press conference in Ankara yesterday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reported that he and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed preparations for a meeting of the foreign ministers of Turkey, Syria, Russia and Iran. “We need to hold a meeting of foreign ministers. Preparations on the issue are underway and our deputies discussed this at their meeting in the Russian capital,” Lavrov said. “The preparations also involve deciding on a date that works for all four [foreign] ministers.”
According to Lavrov, the very fact that meetings of defense ministers, heads of intelligence services as well of deputy foreign ministers have been held since December 2022 indicates that the normalization process has begun. “This cannot be a one-step process and we have both agreed on this,” Lavrov stated, speaking about his meeting with Cavusoglu. “As we say, such issues cannot be solved overnight. We need to establish lines of communication, build trust, increase transparency, but also agree on how to ultimately find a balance between the legitimate interests of this process’ participants,” Lavrov added.
