The Pentagon’s top general met Wednesday with his counterparts from Turkey and Russia, a new step in exploring how military operations by the three countries will occur in increasingly tight quarters in Syria.
The meeting among Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Russian Gen. Valeriy Gerasimov; and Turkish Gen. Hulusi Akar occurred in Antalya, Turkey, said Navy Capt. Greg Hicks, a spokesman for the chairman.
It marks the second meeting in a month between Dunford and Gerasimov. Before, the two officers had not met face-to-face since 2014, when the United States broke off most contact between the U.S. and Russian militaries after Moscow launched military operations in Ukraine and annexed that country’s Crimean Peninsula as its own. But senior U.S. military officials have called for increased talks between Russia and the United States to “deconflict” operations and make sure that there are no collisions between U.S. and Russian aircraft. That has become more urgent as both countries increasingly focus on overlapping sections of Syria.
Turkey’s inclusion in the meeting comes as its military moves farther south into Syria from Turkish territory. Turkish-backed forces last month took over the Syrian city of al-Bab from Islamic State militants and have carried out numerous airstrikes in the region.