US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will meet in Washington on Wednesday with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov to discuss issues including the conflict in Ukraine and how to end the war in Syria, the State Department said.

The department, in a statement on Monday, said the two men will talk about how to end fighting between Ukrainian troops and Russian backed separatist rebels.

It added that on Syria, Tillerson “intends to discuss efforts to de-escalate violence, provide humanitarian assistance to the Syrian people, and set the stage for a political settlement of the conflict.”

Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Russian foreign ministry had initially said the two diplomats would meet Wednesday or Thursday in Alaska on the sidelines of a summit on the arctic.

But the meeting has now been moved to the US capital.

source: Alarabiya