Syria to continue strategic coordination with Russia: Syrian FM

"My last visit to Moscow was with the aim of strengthening the strategic relations between the two countries."

Kurdistan 24 2022/02/24 17:59

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad addresses the 76th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, Monday, Sept. 27, 2021, at U.N. headquarters. (Photo: John Minchillo/AP)

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said that strategic relations between Syria and Russia are continuing and that the two countries have a common cause in the region and the world, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency reported on Thursday.

“My last visit to Moscow was with the aim of strengthening the strategic relations between the two countries, and these relations are constantly developing because each country believes in the correctness of the other country’s positions and because it has been proven that their policies help improve the situation in the region and the world,” he said in a Wednesday night interview on Syrian television.

Mekdad said the recent visit of Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu to Syria was aimed at conveying to the world that Russia and Syria are united and strong.

Earlier this month, Russia deployed MiG-31K fighter jets armed with long-range Kinzhal hypersonic missiles along with Tu-22M strategic bombers to its airbase in western Syria. They took part in exercises over the Eastern Mediterranean amidst the tense standoff between Russia and the West over Ukraine.

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Thursday shortly after recognizing the breakaway Ukrainian regions of Luhansk and Donetsk as independent states. Mekdad said that Syria supported the move and pledged to cooperate with these separatist governments. Syria previously recognized the two Russian-backed Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia in 2018, making Damascus one of only five countries to do so.