Putin has arrived in Istanbul for meeting with leaders of Germany, France, Turkey

Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Istanbul for a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later on Saturday. The leaders of the four countries will discuss the issues of the political settlement as well as the social and economic recovery of Syria.

UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura plans to address the participants of the summit at a briefing. Earlier he said that an international consensus is required to support the UN actions on establishing a constitutional committee after localizing the problem in Idlib.

The participants of the Istanbul meeting are going to exchange opinions on the progress in the Syrian political settlement, further steps in the interests of security and stability, creation of conditions for the repatriation of refugees and the reconstruction of socio-economic infrastructure, the Kremlin press service said earlier. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged that the countries have different approaches, but noted that "overall everybody wants to see a political settlement in Syria." "That is a common goal, while certain disagreements may exist regarding the instruments and tactics," he explained. "It is on all those issues that the watches will be synchronized," Peskov added.

Turkish President put forward the initiative of holding the summit in the summer, while Moscow welcomed the idea. A group of foreign affairs aides of the Russian, German, Turkish and French leaders met in Istanbul in the middle of September to discuss the summit’s agenda.

The leaders are expected to make statements for the press following the meeting.

According to the Kremlin press service, it is also planned to delve into "a number of other relevant global issues" at the summit. Beyond the quadrilateral meeting, the leaders are expected to have bilateral meetings.