Kazakhstan Hopes for Progress on Syria Ceasefire in Astana - Official

ASTANA (Sputnik) – Kazakhstan hopes that progress will be achieved in the Astana talks on Syria on strengthening ceasefire and intensifying political processes, Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Akylbek Kamaldinov said Thursday.

"Kazakhstan expresses its sincere hope that today's meeting will be productive. We hope to make progress around implementing the ceasefire regime while establishing measures to stabilize the situation in particular regions and agree on practical steps ahead of the upcoming intra-Syrian talks in Geneva," Kamaldinov told reporters.

The second round of Astana talks was expected to take place on February 15-16, however on Tuesday Syria's state television said that the beginning of the negotiations had been postponed until Thursday, because the delegations of both the Syrian armed opposition and Turkey had not arrived in Astana yet.

The first round of Astana talks on Syrian crisis settlement brought together the representatives of the Syrian government and the armed opposition groups for the first time in the six years of the Syrian war. As a result of the talks, Russia, Iran and Turkey agreed to establish a trilateral mechanism to monitor the ceasefire that came into effect on December 30, 2016.