David Cameron and the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, have agreed that their countries should “work together” in the fight against Islamic State, Downing Street has said.
The two men spoke by phone early on Wednesday, after the prime minister called Putin to update him on Britain’s military action in Syria, following last week’s House of Commons vote to extend RAF missions against Isis – also known as Isil, IS or Daesh – over the border from Iraq.
Cameron made clear Britain’s continued opposition to the participation of Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad – a protege of Moscow – in any postwar regime in Damascus, telling Putin the country needed “a government that all the Syrian people can support”.
The prime minister also said he would consider Putin’s request for British experts to analyse data from the black box of a Russian warplane downed by Turkey near its border with Syria.