The Archbishop of Canterbury is willing to work with Vladimir Putin's ally Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, the Orthodox Church leader said on Tuesday.
Kirill said he "enjoyed full understanding" with Justin Welby at their meeting in Lambeth Palace on Tuesday afternoon. He spoke at the end of a four-day UK visit where he also met the Queen at Buckingham Palace and consecrated the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Kensington, west London.
"There is this common concern about the events ongoing in the world and the willingness to work together to make the world better as much as the Churches can," he said of his meeting with the Anglican primate.
Kirill's visit was the first from a Russian Patriarch for many years and came at a time of particularly strained relations between the two countries. Last week the UK foreign secretary Boris Johnson called for protests outside the Russian embassy in London over its bombing of civilians in Aleppo.
A UN relief convoy was attacked last month in Syria – an action blamed on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
But the Russian Orthodox Church has close ties to the state and Kirill has remained a loyal supporter of Putin, once calling his time in office a "miracle of God".
In a private meeting between Welby, other Anglican representatives including the Bishop of London and Patriarch Kirill it was acknowledged that "tensions" exist between the Russian and British governments.
"It's true that we are living at a difficult time, and everyone acknowledges this, including British politicians, Russian politicians, and church leaders. Too many radical changes have happened in human civilisation and in the world in general. All of us are facing very dangerous challenges, global challenges," the patriarch told a press conference at Luton airport on Tuesday night, according to Interfax.
"It is absolutely obvious that humankind is passing through a very risky stage of its historical development."
A statement from Lambeth Palace after their meeting said they discussed their "shared compassion for Christian, and other, minorities in many parts of the world, especially in the Middle East".
It added: "Archbishop Justin and Patriarch Kirill agreed that the first loyalty of the Christian Church is to the Lord Jesus Christ, and they affirmed that reconciliation was the key ministry of the Church in situations of conflict."
