Top Russian, NATO generals hold rare face-to-face meeting

FILE PHOTO: Chief of the General Staff of Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, arrives for the opening ceremony of the International Army Games 2017 in Alabino, outside Moscow, Russia, July 29, 2017. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

MOSCOW/BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The head of Russia's military general staff and NATO's supreme allied commander held a rare face-to-face meeting on Thursday to try to ease the worst East-West tensions since the Cold War.

U.S. Army General Curtis Scaparrotti and Valery Gerasimov met in Baku, Azerbaijan, less than a week after the United States, Britain and France staged missile strikes on Syria in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad - a close ally of Russia.