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The leaders of France, Germany, Turkey and Russia will meet on Oct 27 in Istanbul to discuss the war in Syria and identify ways of avoiding a humanitarian catastrophe in the country's Idlib region, the French presidency said on Friday.
President Emmanuel Macron's office said Paris wanted to ensure a ceasefire in Idlib remained in place to prevent a new exodus of refugees and to provide new momentum for peace talks.
A quadrilateral summit on Syria between Turkey, Russia, Germany and France will be held in Istanbul on Oct. 27, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalın said on Friday.The meeting, which will be hosted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will see the participation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron."The summit will aim to address the Syrian conflict with all its aspects, focusing on the situation on the ground, the Idlib agreement and the political process, and to harmonize joint efforts for finding a lasting solution to the conflict," Kalın said in a statement.Clashes between pro-Assad and Iran-backed militias leave 85 deadTurkey hosts 3.5 million Syrian refugees, more than any other country in the world. The country has spent more than $32 billion from its own national resources for helping and sheltering refugees since the beginning of the Syrian civil war.Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity. Since then, hundreds of thousands of people are believed to have been killed and millions more displaced by the conflict.UN praises changes for the better in Syria
Quadrilateral summit on Syria to be held in Istanbul