Moscow says trilateral meeting idea "extremely positive"

Moscow is extremely positive about the idea of ​​Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to hold a meeting of the leaders of Turkey, Syria and the Russian Federation, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on Friday.

"Extremely positive," he said, answering a question from Russian RIA Novosti agency about how Russia perceived Erdogan's idea.

"We are now holding contacts with Syrian friends," Bogdanov added.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday said Ankara is willing to take trilateral steps with Moscow and Damascus governments on Syria.

“I’ve made the proposal to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, he looked positively. Thus, we will start the chain of negotiations," Erdogan told reporters on a flight back from Turkmenistan, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

After years of supporting the opposition aiming to topple the Assad regime since the civil war erupted in Syria in 2011, Turkey signalled a U-turn in Syrian policy when Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in July disclosed that he met with the Syrian Foreign Minister on the sidelines of a European summit.

Contacts between the two countries’ intelligence services currently remain the sole direct dialogue channel between Damascus and Ankara.