Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar present at a meeting between NATO Defense Ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium 12 February 2020. (Reuters)

A quadripartite meeting between Defense Ministers of Russia, Syria, Turkey, and Iran will take place tomorrow in Moscow, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced on Monday.

"It is planned to hold a meeting of defense ministers and intelligence leaders of Turkey, Russia, Syria, and Iran in Moscow tomorrow," Akar said, as quoted by the Anadolu news agency.

The Deputy Foreign Ministers of the countries met earlier in April to discuss a possible process for the normalization of ties between Syria and Turkey.

In the quadripartite meeting, the Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister laid out three conditions for the normalization of relations with Turkey, which currently occupies areas in Northern Syria.

Syrian and Turkish demands

According to the state news agency SANA, the Syrian delegation at the meeting was intent on delivering the three key points as the basis of future talks with Turkey, "Ending the illegal Turkish presence on Syrian territory, non-interference in the Syrian internal affairs, and combating terrorism in all its forms.”

On the other hand, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu revealed that there a specific Turkish agenda has not been put forth however, the country will raise 4 main issues in future meetings which are: holding talks between the Syrian government with what he described as the "Syrian opposition", the return of asylum seekers from Turkey to Syria, facilitating humanitarian aid to all Syrian areas, and fighting against terrorism in the region.

Çavuşoğlu said, "A meeting of four Foreign Ministers is planned, we discussed it with [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov during his visit. We think that such a meeting will take place in early May, I believe in Moscow. We received such information from the Russian side," pointing out that the objective of the meeting would be discussing a political settlement for the Syrian crisis.

Combatting terrorism

The meeting scheduled for April 25 was preceded by a meeting on December 28 of the Defense Ministers of Russia, Syrian, and Turkey in Moscow on 28 December 2022.

"On December 28, trilateral talks between the defense ministers of Russia, Syria, and Turkey took place in Moscow. The meeting discussed ways to address the Syrian crisis, the issue of refugees, and joint efforts to combat extremist groups in Syria," the Russian Defense Ministry said.

After the meeting, the defense ministers highlighted how the dialogue was constructive, stressing the need for all three parties to hold further talks to bring more stability to Syria and the whole region, the statement added.