Kazakhstan, Russia’s close military ally and economic partner, did not engage in talks on sending troops to secure the so-called de-escalation zones in Syria, the country’s foreign minister said, denying previous reports on the issue. “Kazakhstan is not in talks with anyone on deploying its service members to Syria,” Foreign Minister Kairat Abdrakhmanov said on Friday, as cited by RIA Novosti. Kazakhstan’s military has seen almost no overseas deployments during the last decade. Earlier, some Russian media reports suggested Moscow had engaged in talks with Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan about the prospective deployment of their forces, alongside Russian military police, as part of a safe-zone monitoring mission in Syria. Meanwhile , Kyrgyzstan’s Foreign Ministry and General Staff said they had “no information” on talks over possible deployments to Syria.

Source: The Local June 23, 2017 14:03 UTC