Next international meeting on Syria to be held in Astana in May
Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Akylbek Kamaldinov read out the joint Russian, Turkish and Iranian statement following the Astana Meeting on Wednesday (March 15) stressing that the sides express their support for continuation of the high-level Geneva talks in March.
According to the document, the Syrian Government, the Syrian opposition and observers may be invited to the talks.
"We've made a decision to hold the next high level International Meeting on Syrian Settlement in Astana on May 3-4. Separate consultations on expert level will be held in Tehran in April 2017. We would like to express our gratitude to President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev and the Kazakh authorities for providing a venue for these meetings," the statement reads.
Deputy Foreign Minister of Kazakhstan Kamaldinov noted that Kazakhstan and President Nursultan Nazarbayev will continue to provide the venue [for the peace talks] and put forward peace-keeping proposals within the process.
According to the statement, Kazakhstan will remain neutral and unbiased mediator in the conflict. Kazakhstan will continue to actively contribute to the efforts on peace settlement of the Syrian conflict.
The document also points out that the Astana process is effective and works for the sake of stability in Syria. According to the guarantor-states, the Astana and Geneva processes resulted in ceasefire regime in Syria.
However, according to the statement, it is too early to talk about the ending of the Syrian conflict. "Only through joint efforts we can fight terrorist and extremism. We are optimistic that the Astana process will make its practical contribution," it reads.