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Russian, US FMs discuss DPRK nuke test over phone

Xinhua, February 18, 2013

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his U.S. counterpart John Kerry held, eventually, a telephone conversation on Sunday, discussing Syrian settlement and Pyongyang's recent nuclear test.

  Lavrov and Kerry exchanged views on the Syrian settlement "in the context of the need to stop violence on all sides and start a dialogue between the government and the opposition," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

  They also discussed the situation in Northeast Asia in view of the third nuclear test of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

  The two have agreed to "keep in touch" and discussed the possibility of a face-to-face meeting "in the near future," said the statement.

  U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said earlier that Kerry called Lavrov on Tuesday after DPRK conducted its third controversial nuclear test. However, Kerry did not reach Lavrov, who was in Africa.

  Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich, in response, said Moscow had asked the U.S. side to have a phone conversation on Thursday, but the initiative was left unanswered.

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