MOSCOW, December 2. /TASS/. Preparations are underway for a meeting of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US State Secretary Rex Tillerson on the sidelines of the OSCE Ministerial Council due on December 7-8 in Vienna, Austria, Russia’s Foreign Ministry press office said on Saturday.

"Yes, such a meeting is being negotiated," the ministry said.

On December 7-8, Austria’s capital of Vienna will host the Ministerial Council of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

Earlier, a senior State Department official told reporters about a scheduled meeting between Tillerson and Lavrov. "We have a fairly robust set of discussions underway with the Russians on a lot of global issues - DPRK, Ukraine, and certainly Syria," he said.