Lavrov, Kerry agree to boost interaction on Syria - Russia’s Foreign Ministry

MOSCOW, March 16. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry have agreed to boost interaction of Russia and the United States to overcome the Syria crisis, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday after the top diplomats’ phone talk held at the request of the U.S. "In line with instructions of the Russian and U.S. presidents, who agreed on March 14 to boost Russian-U.S. interaction with the aim to overcome the Syria crisis, the foreign ministers considered the tasks of coordinating efforts between our countries, including between defense agencies, so as to strengthen the ceasefire in Syria, to cut short any violations, to expand humanitarian access and to promote political settlement on the basis of a dialog between the government of the Syrian Arab Republic and a whole spectrum of opposition groups," the ministry said. "Lavrov noted that Vladimir Putin’s decision to pull out the main part of the Russian Aerospace Force’s air group, which coped with the tasks set to it, has created a favorable atmosphere for the intra-Syrian talks which began in Geneva and at which the Syrians should decide their state’s future," the ministry official said. "Following a request of the U.S. Secretary of State, an agreement has been reached that John Kerry will make a working visit to Moscow next week to continue negotiations on pressing issues on the Russian-U.S. agenda," the ministry said. Besides, the conversation focused on other pressing international and bilateral issues, in particular on the need to resolve the Yemen conflict. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday ordered starting the pullout of the main Russian air group from Syria as of March 15. He said the tasks set to the Russian military had been coped with "by and large." Russia joined the operation against terrorists in Syria on September 30, 2015 at the request of Syrian president Bashar Assad. Ceasefire took effect in Syria on February 27, 2016. It had been agreed by Russia and the United States. The ceasefire does not apply to the groups Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra (both outlawed in Russia), and also other groups declared terrorist by the UN Security Council. Read more