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Mattis was traveling to Finland to meet with leaders from the
Northern Group, a forum for 12 northern European countries,
where concern about Russia is growing after it annexed Crimea
from Ukraine and gave its backing to eastern Ukraine separatists
fighting against the Kiev government.
Russia also supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and with
its help Assad has recovered control of swathes of lost Syrian
territory over the last two years and appears militarily
unassailable.
The United States, however, has supported the opposition to
Assad during the Syrian war. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
recently reiterated that Assad should leave power, saying the
"reign of the Assad family is coming to an end" and "the only
issue is how that should be brought about".
"Secretary Tillerson engaged strongly with Staffan de Mistura
about how do we move what has been going on in Astana, how do we
move that over to Geneva where we can actually get the U.N.
engaged on the way forward," Mattis told reporters on a plane en
route to Finland.
Russia has backed peace talks in Astana, the capital of
Kazakhstan, to end the Syrian civil war. U.N. Special Envoy for
Syria Staffan de Mistura announced that stalled peace talks
between the Syrian government and still-to-be-united opposition
would resume in Geneva on Nov. 28.
However, Russia is also fighting against Islamic State in Syria,
making it a de facto ally of the United States, whose forces
have helped Kurdish-led militias recapture Raqqa and other parts
of northern and eastern Syria from the militants.
With Islamic State's territory rapidly shrinking, the focus was
on defeating it in the final few areas, Mattis said - and
avoiding conflict as the gap between Russian and U.S. forces
shrinks.
(Reporting by Idrees Ali, edting by Larry King)
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