Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to continue talks on military cooperation in Syria, a discussion that Kerry has said is nearing an end. Kerry and Lavrov will meet over Kerry’s two-day visit to Geneva, Switzerland, from Aug. 25-27, State Department spokeswoman Elizabeth Trudeau said during a Wednesday briefing. The two leaders spoke by phone on Wednesday, with the Russian government saying the discussion came at the request of the US. The officials discussed “possibilities for coordinating Russian and US efforts to combat terrorism, building on earlier agreements,” the Russian foreign ministry said in statement. Kerry visited Moscow last month and met with Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kerry and Lavrov are also expected to discuss the ongoing situation in Crimea, according to the State Department.
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III chaired a China-focused military briefing Oct. 27, part of a biweekly series of briefings with senior military commanders about China’s growing threat in the wake of an orbital hypersonic weapon test that elicited public worries from the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. “What we…