ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani is set to visit Turkey’s Antalya to attend the Antalya Diplomacy Forum 2025, also set to be attended by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, during which the pair are expected to meet.

The Antalya Diplomacy Forum is an annual international relations event that sees representation from numerous regional and international countries, the event in 2025 is set to begin on April 11 and last through April 13.

During the event, which is set to be attended by both Barzani and Sharaa, The New Region understands that the two will have a meeting on the sidelines of the conference, the first such meeting between both presidents.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani in mid-February met with President Nechirvan Barzani on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference where they discussed political and security developments in Syria and Iraq, less than a month after the foreign minister met with Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, where he extended an invitation to the Kurdish premier to visit Damascus.

Sharaa took charge of Syria after leading a rebel offensive in late December that culminated in the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, ending a five-decade-old Assad dynasty in Syria, he was later appointed as president of the republic and formed a new transitional government and constitution to oversee the affairs of the country in the interim.

The expected meeting between the two presidents will mark the first time Sharaa meets an official from the Kurdistan Region.