The sanctions come just days after a Russian jet was shot down by Turkey near the Syrian border.
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The White House official said Obama expressed regret over the death of one of the Russian pilots.
U.S. President Barack Obama arrives to deliver remarks during the COP21, United Nations Climate Change Conference, in Le Bourget, outside Paris, on Monday, Nov. 30, 2015.
The previous meeting between Putin and Obama was at the G-20 summit in Antalya, where they had two meetings, one of which lasted for about 20 minutes.
“The two presidents discussed the imperative of making progress on the Vienna process to bring about a ceasefire and political resolution to the civil war in Syria”, the official said, referring to global talks in the Austrian capital on the Syria crisis.
Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
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The West has accused Moscow of mostly targeting Western-backed rebel groups fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The presidents discussed the situation in Syria, including the fight against the Islamic State terror group, as well as the situation in Ukraine. “They also spoke about Ukraine and pointed out the importance of an earliest possible implementation of the Minsk accords”.
