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Earlier on Tuesday, a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Defense said President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump "following the two leaders" meeting Monday in Helsinki, Finland
The Russian military "is ready to intensify contacts with the US in the General Staff and other available channels to discuss the extension of the START treaty, cooperation in Syria, and other issues of military security," spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said
Prior to the Trump-Putin meeting at Pentagon spokesman had denied it.
Mattis has been the Trump administration's most consistent and harshest critic of Russia, accusing Moscow NATO and "undermine America's moral authority"
Talks between a US defense secretary and his Russian counterpart have not taken place since 2015.
High-level talks between the US and Russian militaries are now conducted by Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and his Russian counterpart, Gen. Valery Gerasimov. The two generals last spoke on the phone on June 14, a week after an in-person meeting in Helsinki, Finland.
While their governments have developed, the two military leaders stable as possible. They also discuss not only bilateral relations but also operations in Syria, where the two sides often operate in close proximity and deconfliction measures are maintained
In response to the 2014 Russian military incursion in Ukraine and its seventh of Crimea, Congress prohibited " any bilateral military-to-military cooperation "with Russia in its passage of the National Defense Authorization Act.
Reuters was first to report Mattis' willingness to talk to his counterpart
CNN's Barbara Starr contributed to this report.
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