Syrian President Assad Arrives in Moscow, Set to Meet Putin

A photo released by the official Syrian Arab news agency (SANA) on 14 March shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (L) and Russia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Special Representative of the Russian President for the Middle East Mikhail Bogdanov (R), review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony upon the Syrian President's arrival at Vnukovo airport. (SANA/dpa)
A photo released by the official Syrian Arab news agency (SANA) on 14 March shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (L) and Russia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Special Representative of the Russian President for the Middle East Mikhail Bogdanov (R), review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony upon the Syrian President's arrival at Vnukovo airport. (SANA/dpa)
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Syrian President Assad Arrives in Moscow, Set to Meet Putin

A photo released by the official Syrian Arab news agency (SANA) on 14 March shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (L) and Russia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Special Representative of the Russian President for the Middle East Mikhail Bogdanov (R), review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony upon the Syrian President's arrival at Vnukovo airport. (SANA/dpa)
A photo released by the official Syrian Arab news agency (SANA) on 14 March shows Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (L) and Russia's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Special Representative of the Russian President for the Middle East Mikhail Bogdanov (R), review an honor guard during a welcome ceremony upon the Syrian President's arrival at Vnukovo airport. (SANA/dpa)

Syrian President Bashar Assad arrived in Moscow on Tuesday, where he is scheduled to meet top ally Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russia is a main backer of Assad and has a broad presence in Syria, where a 12-year uprising-turned-civil war has killed nearly half a million people and displaced half the country’s pre-war population. Moscow has played a pivotal role in fighting back armed opposition groups trying to topple Assad’s government through its military support, and has also aggressively backed Damascus against opponents at the United Nations.

The Kremlin confirmed Tuesday that Putin will meet with Assad on Wednesday — the anniversary of the conflict — in a statement carried by Russia’s state news agency Tass.

According to the statement, “further development of Russian-Syrian cooperation in the political, trade, economic and humanitarian spheres, as well as the prospects for a comprehensive settlement of the situation in and around Syria,” will be on the agenda.

Assad was received by Putin’s special representative for the Middle East, Mikhail Bogdanov, at Moscow’s Vnukovo international airport.

Prior to a deadly Feb. 6 earthquake that killed 50,000 people in Türkiye and Syria, Russia had been mediating talks to normalize relations between the two quake-hit countries.

Türkiye and Syria have been on opposite sides in Syria’s war for over a decade. Türkiye continues to back armed opposition groups that control a northwestern enclave in northwestern Syria. In December, Moscow hosted surprise talks between the Syrian and Turkish defense ministers.

Syria since last summer has recognized the Russian-controlled Luhansk and Donetsk regions in eastern Ukraine as independent and sovereign entities.

The Syrian, Turkish and Russian deputy foreign ministers as well as a senior adviser to their Iranian counterpart are also set to hold talks Wednesday and Thursday in Moscow to discuss “counterterrorism efforts” in Syria.

Moscow is keen on arranging a meeting between Assad and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to cap its efforts to normalize relations between Türkiye and Syria.



German, French FMs Meet Syria's New Rulers in Damascus

France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (2-R) and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock (3-R) pose for a picture with Syrian rescuers known as the "White Helmets" as members of the security forces of Syria's new administration look on, inside the Saydnaya prison, north of Damascus on January 3, 2025. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (2-R) and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock (3-R) pose for a picture with Syrian rescuers known as the "White Helmets" as members of the security forces of Syria's new administration look on, inside the Saydnaya prison, north of Damascus on January 3, 2025. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
TT

German, French FMs Meet Syria's New Rulers in Damascus

France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (2-R) and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock (3-R) pose for a picture with Syrian rescuers known as the "White Helmets" as members of the security forces of Syria's new administration look on, inside the Saydnaya prison, north of Damascus on January 3, 2025. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP)
France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (2-R) and his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock (3-R) pose for a picture with Syrian rescuers known as the "White Helmets" as members of the security forces of Syria's new administration look on, inside the Saydnaya prison, north of Damascus on January 3, 2025. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP)

The foreign ministers of Germany and France said they wanted to forge a new relationship with Syria and urged a peaceful transition as they met its de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa in Damascus on Friday on behalf of the European Union.
Germany's Annalena Baerbock and France's Jean-Noel Barrot are the first ministers from the EU to visit Syria since opposition fighters seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8 and forced President Bashar al-Assad to flee.
"My trip today...is a clear signal to the Syrians: A new political beginning between Europe and Syria, between Germany and Syria, is possible," Baerbock said before she left for Damascus.
Barrot expressed his hope "for a sovereign, stable and peaceful Syria" after arriving in Damascus, where he also visited the French embassy, which has been closed since 2012.
Barrot, who met with the Syrian staff who looked after the French embassy's closed facilities, said France would work towards re-establishing diplomatic representation in line with political and security conditions, diplomatic sources said.

Baerbock and Barrot visited Syria's Saydnaya prison, an emblem of abuses under Assad.

"Now it's up to the international community to help bring justice to the people who have suffered here in this prison of hell," Baerbock said.