MOSCOW — The summit in Helsinki between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, was arguably this summer’s most anticipated political event. While the meeting might have turned a new page in the US-Russian relationship, it also sparked a surge of opposition to Trump over what is seen as Russian interference in the presidential election of 2016, an issue Putin has continuously dismissed as mere domestic political strife. The two men seemed to dedicate the lion’s share of their more than two-hour-long, face-to-face meeting to this issue.

Against this background, matters concerning the Middle East appeared rather marginal. In a way, it is a manifestation that contrary to the widespread belief that the Middle East is a dominating issue for Moscow and Washington, the region, including the conflict in Syria, actually ranks low on the US-Russian agenda. Yet given the geopolitical complexities and, most important, the close proximity within which the Russian and US militaries have been operating, neither the Kremlin nor the White House can ignore the region, and there are good reasons to view Syria as a good place to start bridging the divide between the two powers.

“It’s time to talk in detail about our bilaterals, as well as about some of the hot points between our countries,” Putin reportedly told Trump in his opening remarks. Given that most of the following joint press conference was dominated by the topic of election interference, it might appear that Trump and Putin made little progress on substantive aspects vis-à-vis Syria and Iran, the two subjects widely expected to be on the agenda. This observation may well be accurate, since the two leaders appear to have focused more on fixing the bilateral relationship and to have spent less time discussing regional crises. In this sense, the content of the meeting between Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is probably more interesting. The first meeting between the top Russian and American diplomats ran in parallel to the presidential talks. It was held behind closed doors, and few details have thus far been released.

Yet both Putin and Trump outlined what can be considered their road map on Syria, which their teams negotiated with one another and their respective regional stakeholders.