Russia, US to hold new talks on Thursday in Turkey

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Russian and US diplomats will meet in Istanbul on Thursday for talks on resolving bilateral disputes that form part of a wider dialogue they see as crucial to ending the Ukraine war.

Lavrov said the talks would focus on creating better conditions for Russian diplomats in the United States and their US counterparts in Russia, after a series of rows over staffing levels and embassy properties.

According to him, the outcome of the Istanbul talks, which followed a call between presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump on February 12 and a high-level Russian-US meeting in Saudi Arabia on February 18, will show how quickly and effectively they can move.

Trump has said he wants to move quickly towards a ceasefire in Ukraine, but Putin this week tempered expectations of rapid progress, saying nothing could be achieved without restoring trust between Russia and the United States.

The agenda for Thursday’s talks signals that the two sides will focus first on technical barriers to diplomatic relations before moving on to more ambitious goals.

He blamed the situation on the administration of Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden.

“Our high-level diplomats, experts, will meet and consider the systemic problems that have accumulated as a result of the illegal activities of the previous administration to create artificial obstacles for the activities of the Russian embassy, to which we, naturally, reciprocated and also created uncomfortable conditions for the work of the American embassy in Moscow,” Lavrov added.