Russia and the United States should focus on the Syrian political process, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said at a meeting with US State Secretary John Kerry on Tuesday.
“The Syrian settlement requires constant attention with regard to the goals that were set at two rounds of group talks in Vienna,” Lavrov underscored at the start of the meeting.
The two foreign policy chiefs are meeting in Moscow to bridge differences on how to end the Syrian war and launch a process of political transition. Washington maintains that Syrian President Bashar Assad should step down, while Moscow argues that his fate is up to the Syrian people to decide.
The last round of international Vienna talks on November 14 ended in a decision to uphold the 2012 Geneva communique on a peaceful political solution to the Syrian conflict and bring together the Syrian government and opposition forces for peace talks by January 1, 2016.
US State Secretary John Kerry announced last week that the next meeting of world powers on Syria would take place in New York City on December 18.