Damascus, October 14: Syrian Defence Minister Ali Habib said his country is to stage a second round of joint military exercises with Turkey, in comments published on Wednesday.
“Syria and Turkey held manoeuvres in the spring and will hold more exercises to develop our actions on the border,” Habib said, quoted in Al-Watan newspaper, but without specifying dates.
The defence minister was speaking at a strategic coordination meeting on Tuesday in Aleppo, northern Syria, of several ministers from the two Muslim neighbours.
The Syrian and Turkish militaries held joint exercises in late April.
Habib’s announcement came less than a week after Turkey’s ties with Israel took a turn for the worse when Tel Aviv announced that Ankara had excluded it from joint air force exercises with NATO members.
Turkish-Syrian relations, meanwhile, have improved after decades of mistrust based on Ankara’s accusations that Damascus supported Turkey’s banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party.
Syria and Turkey signed an agreement in Istanbul last month to establish a cooperation council as part of efforts to forge closer links.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministers of the two countries signed a deal in Aleppo on scrapping visa requirements for each other’s nationals.
—Agencies