"Given the situations in Ukraine and Syria, despite our profound differences with Moscow, the president believes that it would be irresponsible not to test whether we can make progress through high-level engagement with the Russians," he said.
Contacts between Putin and Obama have been very rare following tensions over the Ukrainian crisis. The last meeting took place in November 2014 at the APEC summit in China. In the past months the two presidents had only three telephone conversations.
More about:
