Germany plans to hold Libya summit on Jan 19, participants say

BERLIN-Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel speak before a joint news conference in the Kremlin in Moscow on Jan. 11, 2020. (Sputnik/Sergei Guneev/Kremlin via Reuters)

Germany plans to hold a summit aimed at plotting a path to peace in Libya on Jan. 19, two participants in the preparatory negotiations said on Jan. 13.

The summit will coincide with a one-day visit to Berlin by Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan, about which Erdoğan's office, which announced the trip, gave no further details.

Erdoğan's presence is seen as essential to the success of any conference on Libya, since Ankara's decision to deploy military advisers and possibly troops there has made it a major player in the country's long-running civil war.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced the summit on Jan. 11, adding that the United Nations would lead talks if a meeting were to take place in Berlin. She said Libya's warring parties would need to play a major role if a solution was to be found.

Merkel said the aim was to give Libya the chance of becoming a sovereign and peaceful country.

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said there were plans to hold a Libya conference in Berlin in January but declined to confirm the date.

After talks between their presidents - Erdoğan and Vladimir Putin - in Istanbul, Turkey and Russia on Jan. 8 called jointly for an end to hostilities, normalization of life in Tripoli and other cities, and U.N.-sponsored peace talks.

Turkey backs Fayez al-Serraj's Tripoli-based, internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA), while Russian military contractors have been deployed alongside General Khalifa Haftar's eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA).