Ankara and Moscow continue to cooperate to reach an agreement on a lasting cease-fire for conflicting parties in Idlib, northwestern Syria, but the issue should not be allowed to harm Russian-Turkish ties, according to Turkey's foreign minister.
"A lot of work lies ahead, we continue to cooperate actively on these issues with Russia," Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu told Russian daily Izvestia in an interview published Monday.
"The final response you will get to know on Monday, after the meeting of our delegations in Moscow. We must not let the Syrian problem affect our cooperation and our relations."
The meeting's outcome will show the necessity of further talks on the problem.
In September 2018, Turkey and Russia agreed to turn Idlib into a de-escalation zone in which acts of aggression are expressly prohibited.
But more than 1,800 civilians have been killed in attacks by Assad regime and Russian forces since then, flouting both the 2018 cease-fire and a new one that started on Jan. 12.
