U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is welcoming Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to the State Department Wednesday for talks expected to be dominated by the two countries’ differences over Syria and Ukraine.
Later in the morning Lavrov will meet with President Donald Trump at the White House. This will be the first time Lavrov has visited Washington since 2013.
Tillerson and Lavrov met in Moscow last month, amid tensions over the U.S. bombing of a Syrian airfield after alleged chemical attacks by Syrian forces on civilians, including many children.
Former U.S. Ambassador Alexander Vershbow, now with the Atlantic Council research institute, told VOA that the two men will have their work cut out.
“On Syria we both claim to be seeking the same thing, which is an end to the civil war and a transition to some kind of new government acceptable to all the people of Syria. But of course when you get down to the details, we can’t seem to agree on anything,” said Vershbow.
He says the main sticking point remains whether Syria’s future includes President Bashar al-Assad, whom the U.S. and most other countries say must step down, but Russia supports. Also at issue, Russia, Iran and Turkey signed a deal on "de-escalation zones" — or safe zones for Syria civilians —at talks in Astana, Kazakhstan last week. The U.S. only sent an envoy to the talks as an observer.
Tillerson likely will want to learn more about how the zones will be enforced. Vershbow said frequent dialogue between Tillerson and Lavrov on these complex issues is crucial.
“At least Tillerson and Lavrov have developed a working relationship. It was very important that Tillerson also saw President [Vladimir] Putin when he was in Moscow a couple of weeks ago,” said Vershbow.
Some Democratic lawmakers say they are very concerned by the ongoing investigations into Russian hacking and other interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, and possible collusion between members of then-candidate Donald Trump’s team and Russia.
Democratic Senator Ben Cardin told VOA he would like Tillerson to convey that concern to Lavrov.
“It was an attack on our country. Russia tried to undermine our free election system; they tried to influence an election in America, that's a very serious issue," said Cardin. "So we want to find out exactly what they were doing and we want to take steps to protect our country and our democratic institutions, and we believe that additional sanctions should be imposed on Russia for this behavior.”
It is not clear whether Tillerson will bring up the issue of Russian meddling in the U.S. elections with Lavrov. After Wednesday’s meeting, Tillerson and Lavrov will meet again Thursday, along with their six other Arctic Circle counterparts, in Fairbanks, Alaska for a ministerial meeting.
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