President Obama will meet next week with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the United Nations General Assembly session, despite frosty relations between the two leaders since Russia annexed the Crimea and Russian-backed forces seized eastern portions of Ukraine.
The two last spoke by phone after U.S. and Iranian negotiations reached an agreement to limit Iran's nuclear program, and the longest in-person meeting was a 15-minute conversation during the D-Day commemoration in June 2014.
The White House issued a statement saying that despite differences in policy, the two leaders needed to discuss Russia's recent military reinforcement of embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and continuing violations of a cease-fire accord for Ukraine that was negotiated by Russian, Ukrainian and European leaders in Minsk, the capital of Belarus.