Tillerson to meet Lavrov in Vienna next week
Rex Tillerson will meet Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of OSCE talks in Vienna next week.
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will meet his Russian counterpart Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of OSCE talks in Vienna next week, a senior US official said Friday.
Tillerson is due in the Austrian capital for the 57-member Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe s 24th Ministerial Council on December 7 and 8.
According to a senior official in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity, Tillerson and Lavrov could stage their bilateral US-Russia meeting on Thursday.
Relations between Washington and Moscow are tense, amid disagreements over Russia s interventions in Ukraine and Syria and alleged illegal interference in US and European elections.
But the OSCE council will give the rivals a forum to address the crisis in Ukraine, as world powers attempt to negotiate terms for a UN force to protect OSCE peace monitors.
