Kerry calls for common ground with Russian Federation on Syria, Ukraine

US State Secretary John Kerry announced last week that the next meeting of world powers on Syria would take place in New York City on December 18.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov began talks in Moscow on Tuesday in an effort to keep the brittle Syrian peace process on track.

Lavrov said: “I hope that today we will be able to discuss all these issues comprehensively”, TASS reported.

Kerry’s visit follows a meeting last week in Riyadh which agreed to unite a number of opposition groups, not including Islamic State, to negotiate with Damascus in peace talks.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry listens during a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, foreground, in Moscow Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015.

He also said that the meeting would cover the matter of Ukraine, with its continued division between the Western-backed government in Kiev and the Russian-backed separatists in its East.

A statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry aired some of those grievances, saying that Moscow “will continue to seek a revision of the USA administration policy based on dividing terrorists into a “bad” and “good” ones” and complaining that the US was unwilling to engage in “full-fledged coordination” between the two powers’ militaries while both are conducting airstrikes in Syria.

USA TODAY Resumed violence threatens Ukraine cease-fire On Syria, Washington favors a political transition in that may see President Bashar Assad eventually step apart, while Moscow is adamant in that exclusively the Syrian people could make in that call.

Russian Federation has been carrying out air strikes targeting ISIS positions in Syria, but the United States accuses Russian Federation of bombing moderate rebels.

Assad’s future and his potential role in the political transition will be prime topics of Kerry’s conversations with Putin and Lavrov. Syrian opposition groups, however, demand that Assad leave at the start of the process.

Kerry’s talks with Putin will also delve deeper into details of a planned January 1 ceasefire in Syria, as well as Monday’s comments by Russia on supporting the Free Syrian Army (FSA), which has been fighting Russian- and Iranian-backed government forces.