The issue of Ukraine will “absolutely not” be discussed, according to the US State Department
The next round of talks aimed at improving US-Russia diplomatic ties will take place in Istanbul, Türkiye, on Thursday, the US State Department has confirmed.
Washington and Moscow have held several rounds of high-level meetings since US President Donald Trump took office, with the next round of negotiations expected in the coming days, the Russian Foreign Ministry said earlier on Tuesday.
“On April 10, US and Russian delegations will meet for a second time in Istanbul to try to make progress on further stabilizing the operations of our bilateral missions,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce confirmed at a press briefing later in the day.
The US official emphasized that the upcoming talks are “solely focused on our embassy operations, not on normalizing a bilateral relationship overall, which can only happen, as we’ve noted, once there is peace between Russia and Ukraine.”
“There are no political or security issues on the agenda, and Ukraine is not – absolutely not – on the agenda,” she added.
In recent years, Russia and the US have cut diplomatic staff at each other’s missions, imposed banking restrictions, and seized diplomatic properties. The escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022 further deepened tensions and led to additional measures.
Trump, however, has moved away from many Biden-era policies, calling for a swift resolution to the Ukraine conflict and a reset in bilateral ties. The first meeting between Russian and US high-level delegations took place in Riyadh on February 18, focusing on restoring embassy operations and easing restrictions. A follow-up round in Istanbul on February 27 addressed diplomatic funding and Russia’s proposal to reinstate direct flights.
According to Moscow, the venue, format, and participants of this week’s talks will remain unchanged. The Russian delegation will be led by the country’s new ambassador to Washington, Aleksandr Darchiev, while the US side will be headed by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Eurasian Affairs Sonata Coulter.
