Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama held talks for around 30 minutes on the sidelines of a summit in Paris on Monday at which the two leaders discussed the Syria and Ukraine crises, a Kremlin spokesman said.
Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman, told reporters that Obama had expressed regret at the meeting over the downing of a Russian plane by Turkish military jets, and that both sides had spoken in favour of moving towards a political settlement of the Syria crisis.
The White House says Obama told Putin that Syrian President Bashar Assad must leave power in the transition to end Syria’s civil war.
Obama is also calling on Russia to focus its airstrikes in Syria on Islamic State militants, not rebels fighting Assad.
On Ukraine, the leaders noted the need for full implementation of the Minsk peace deal.
