Russia and US Set for New Consultations in Istanbul
MOSCOW (Reuters) -A new round of Russia-U.S. consultations will take place on April 10 at the Russian consulate in Istanbul, a diplomatic source said on Tuesday.
In February, Russian and U.S. teams held talks in Istanbul to try to restore normal functioning of their embassies. The talks, focused narrowly on conditions for each other's diplomats, provided an early test of the two countries' ability to reset wider relations.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Russian state-run TASS news agency reported that delegations from Russia and the U.S. would meet for consultations in Istanbul in the coming days, citing the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The Russian delegation will be led by Alexander Darchiev, recently appointed as Russia's ambassador to the U.S., while the U.S. delegation will be headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sonata Coulter, TASS reported.
Both delegations will be made up of only diplomats and the talks will focus on normalising the operations of the diplomatic missions of both countries, it quoted Russia's Foreign Ministry as saying.
U.S. and Russian officials also met in February in the Saudi capital Riyadh to discuss how to end the war in Ukraine, part of a broader rapprochement with Moscow sought by the new Trump administration.
(Reporting by Can Sezer, Maxim Rodionov and Ezgi ErkoyunEditing by Andrew Osborn and Gareth Jones)
