President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin conducted their first face-to-face meeting in nearly two years on Monday evening.

The leaders sat down for a 90-minute closed-door meeting in New York City on Monday at the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting. This marked the first time that they held a formal sit-down meeting in two years -- long before Russia annexed Crimea and sent military intervention in eastern Ukraine.

Following the meeting, Putin described his talks with Obama as "very constructive and surprisingly open," reports NBC News.

"We have a lot in common," Putin told reporters. Although "disputes remain," he stated that "we have sound grounds to work on the points of concern together."

According to a U.S. official, the pair agreed to discuss a political resolution in Syria and conducted conversations between U.S. and Russian military officials to de-escalate the conflict in the country. However, the presidents sharply disagreed over the role that Syrian President Bahar al-Assad should play in resolving the civil conflict, reports Fox News.

While speaking to reporters, Obama insisted Assad must relinquish power, meanwhile Putin declared his support for Assad and said that he is the only option to defeat ISIS. Obama went on to call Assad a "tyrant" who "drops barrel bombs to massacre innocent civilians." He continued describing ISIS as an "apocalyptic cult" that must be defeated or else "dangerous currents risk pulling us back into a darker, more disordered world."

On the other hand, Putin starkly defended Assad as a stabilizing force who's "valiantly fighting terrorism face to face."

"This is not about Russia's ambitions but about the recognition of the fact that we can no longer tolerate the urgent state of affairs in the world," he added.

The meeting comes at a time of intense tension in Europe and the Middle East. Putin also recently dispatched combat aircrafts, tanks and other military equipment in the war-torn country in Syria.