LE BOURGET, France— U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Moscow next week for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on two of the most vexing crises in U.S.-Russian relations: Syria’s civil war and Ukraine’s ongoing instability.
The State Department said Friday that Kerry will travel to Moscow after attending a high-level meeting with European and Arab foreign ministers on Dec. 14 in Paris. Kerry will see Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov the next day in the Russian capital.
The discussions come amid severely strained ties between the Cold War foes, but there are also some signs of possible improvement.
Washington and Moscow continue to clash over their uncoordinated military efforts in Syria, where the U.S. says it is leading a broad coalition fighting the Islamic State. Russia says its airstrikes since late September have targeted the same foe, but Western governments claim mostly moderate rebels are being hit and that Moscow is primarily concerned with shoring up Syrian President Bashar Assad’s control of the country.
