The second matter, discussed with our European – German and French – colleagues dealt with the situation around Syria and Syrian settlement in general.

I informed our European partners of our view on the developments there and on what needs to be done immediately to fight terrorism, to root out terrorism on Syrian soil, to make sure this hotbed does not flare up again in the future, and, of course, what should be done to ensure that our efforts lead to a final settlement. Primarily we spoke of the political component in this process.

I reminded our colleagues yet again that Russia suggests stepping up efforts to develop and adopt a new constitution, on the basis of which preliminary elections could be held and a preliminary agreement could be reached between all the conflicting parties. This would naturally have to involve all the countries in the region drawn into the process.

We also informed them of our intention, the intention of the Russian side to extend the pause in air strikes for as long as possible, based on the actual situation in the area. We are ready to do this until the rebel groups in Aleppo step up their activities.

We also expect our partners, primarily our American partners, to do everything they have promised so far to disengage the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists and similar terrorist groups from the so-called healthy opposition, so we can see what we need to do next together.

This is generally what our discussions today were about and what we have managed to agree on.