Putin and Obama could discuss Syria next week

Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama may discuss the Syria crisis on the sidelines of an Asia-Pacific summit next week in Bali, a Kremlin aide said on Thursday.

“It would be rather logical to meet (Obama) in Bali, taking into account the work on the Syrian issue,” Putin’s top foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters. 

He said U.S. and Russian officials were discussing arrangements for a possible meeting during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. Putin is expected to leave Moscow for the Indonesian island of Bali on Sunday.

Russia, which is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main ally, and the United States have long been at odds over the conflict in Syria.

But the two countries, which are permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, agreed last month on a plan for the Syrian government to hand over its chemical weapons and are trying to arrange an international peace conference.

Obama and Putin also discussed Syria briefly during a summit of the Group of 20 developed and developing nations in the Russian city of St. Petersburg on Sept 5-6.