Valdai Club

China may increase military supplies to the Syrian government, but direct military involvement is uncertain.

The need for flight safety coordination during the Russian and US military operations in Syria has forced the sides to maintain a dialogue which is essential in times of political tension, former Special Adviser at the European Commission Robert Cooper said on the sidelines of the Valdai International Discussion Club Annual meeting in the Russian city of Sochi. “Both Russia and USA are involved in military actions in Syria. The bad thing about that is it helps the civil war to continue. The good thing about that is that it means that they have to talk to each other,” Robert Cooper told journalists.

"No talks should not be interpreted today as trade around the fate of Bashar Assad, because our military operation supports the legitimate government, which at this stage is headed by Assad. This operation strengthens Assad now, "- said director the Institute of Oriental Studies Vitaly Naumkin on the sidelines of the Valdai Discussion Club Annual meeting. At the same time, he said, "it does not mean that Russia sees Asad as president for life".

"It seems to me that the trilateral format of Russia-US-Saudi Arabia talks may be useful, but without the participation of Iran such a meeting cannot lead to results that provide real development of the situation in a positive direction", - he pointed out.

Iran no longer denies that its regular army units are fighting in Syria "on the ground", said Vitaly Naumkin. "They used to say that there is no army, but now they don't say so. Now there is a coalition, an agreement on the basis of the request from the Government of Syria. " He also said, that operation of Russian aerospace forces in Syria would not be successful without the support of Syrian Kurds.

China may increase military supplies to the Syrian government, but direct military involvement is uncertain. This opinion was expressed by Sheng Shiliyang, Research Fellow, Xinhua Center for World Affairs Studies, on the sidelines of the Valdai Discussion Club Annual Meeting in Sochi.

"China supports Syria, supports the legitimate power. China not only supports / Syria / verbally, but supplies radars "- said Sheng Shiliyang. He also noted that some representatives of the Syrian government asked for an increase of Chinese weapons supplies. "I think that perhaps we will increase the supply of weapons, but the troops presence, even limited, will not happen," - said the Chinese expert.

Europe is interested in the Russian struggle against terrorist "Islamic State", but it is also interested in decline of the migrants flow. This is the opinion of Alexander Rahr, scientific director of the German-Russian Forum. He expressed it in interview on the sidelines of the Valdai Discussion Club Annual Meeting in Sochi. He also said that joint efforts to combat ISIS could lead to the cancellation of the third wave of anti-Russian sanctions.

According to reports of TASS, Interfax, RIA Novosti and Sputnik news agencies.