At a meeting in Washington, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the two nations had laid a "solid foundation" for future co-operation.

 

The conference comes days after US President Barack Obama cancelled a summit with Russia's Vladimir Putin.

 

He cited Russia's decision to grant asylum¹ to the fugitive² Edward Snowden.

 

 

Also at the meeting in Washington were Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and his US counterpart, Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel.

 

Mr Kerry acknowledged the growing tension between Russia and the US, aggravated³ this month by Russia's decision to grant asylum for a year to Edward Snowden, the American former National Security Agency contractor⁴ who leaked details of US surveillance and intelligence programmes to the news media.

 

"It's no secret that we have experienced some challenging moments, and obviously not just over the Snowden case," Mr Kerry said, flanked by Mr Lavrov and Mr Shoigu.

 

"We will discuss these differences today, for certain. But this meeting remains⁵ important above and beyond the collisions and the moments of disagreement."

 

In particular, Mr Kerry cited the need for progress on missile defence, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea and Syria.

 

 

On Syria, Mr Kerry acknowledged that he and Mr Lavrov were at odds⁶ over whether President Bashar al-Assad and his forces or the Syrian rebels were responsible for the violence, nor did they agree "on some of the ways forward".

 

Relations between both countries have been strained over Syria, with Russia refusing to back international calls for President Assad to step down.

 

But Mr Kerry said the two countries agreed on the need to stave off collapse⁷ and chaos⁸ in the country, and that the answer lay in a negotiated political solution.

 

He also called for a second round of Geneva talks on the Syrian conflict.

 

Mr Lavrov said the two countries' diplomats⁹ had "laid very solid foundation for future work", but indicated proposals for further co-operation could not be agreed until Mr Obama and Mr Putin met in person.

 

"At least we in Russia were prepared to table our proposals to the two presidents, and we will do so once their summit meeting takes place," Mr Lavrov said.

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