Army chiefs from Turkey, Iran and Russia discussed regional issues in Russia's coastal city of Sochi on Tuesday, according to the Turkish General Staff.
Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar met his Russian and Iranian counterparts to discuss security issues, collaboration in the fight against terror groups as well as the reduction of violence in Syria and de-escalation zones, which were established after the Astana talks, the statement said.
The meeting with Russian Chief of General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov and Iranian Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri came ahead of Wednesday's trilateral summit on Syria with the participation of Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Russia's Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.
The active phase of the military operation in Syria is coming to a close, it resulted into the preservation of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, while creating conditions for peaceful life and the return of refugees, Chief of the Russian General Staff Valery Gerasimov said Tuesday.
At the meeting with his Turkish and Iranian counterparts, Gerasimov summarized the results of the three countries' joint efforts in Syria.
"The active phase of the military operation in Syria is ending. Despite the fact that there is a number of the problems that have not been solved yet, this stage is coming to its logical conclusion … We have achieved much by our join efforts in Syria. Most importantly, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country have been preserved, the civil war has been stopped and conditions for peaceful life and the return of refugees have been created," he stressed.
Gerasimov thanked his Iranian counterpart for initiating a meeting on further elaboration of the joint strategy to fight terrorism. He also expressed the hope that the sides would find common approaches to the continuation of further work on Syria.
