Putin hosts Syria’s Assad as Kremlin seeks to mend ties between Syria and Turkey
- The meeting follows a surprise announcement last week of a Chinese-brokered restoration of diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran
- Bashar al-Assad, who arrived in Moscow on Tuesday, voiced support for Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine
“We are in constant contact and our relations are developing,” the Russian leader told Assad at the televised start of their meeting, hailing “significant results in the fight against international terrorism.”
Assad, who arrived in Moscow on Tuesday, voiced support for Moscow’s military campaign in Ukraine and said the visit would mark “a new facet” in his country’s ties with Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov earlier told reporters the talks would focus on bilateral ties but said: “Turkey-Syria relations will certainly be touched upon in one way or another.”
Syria’s civil war in 2011 strained relations between Damascus and Ankara, which has long supported rebel groups opposed to Assad.
Turkey severed diplomatic ties with Syria soon after the war began.
