On April 10, delegations from Russia and the United States will hold a second round of consultations in Istanbul on issues of normalizing the work of diplomatic missions. The Russian delegation at the meeting will be headed by the new Russian Ambassador to Washington, Alexander Darchiev. The consultations in Istanbul, during which the resumption of bilateral contacts will be discussed, will not touch upon Ukraine or security issues. Despite the lack of progress in the Ukrainian settlement, the United States and Russia are striving to achieve results at the bilateral level, without losing the pace of dialogue under the new administration in the White House and refraining from abrupt steps that are fraught with new destabilization.
This will be the second meeting of US and Russian delegations in Istanbul in the last month and a half - the first took place on February 27 and, as the Russian Foreign Ministry reported at the time, “was held in a meaningful and businesslike manner.”
The composition of the delegations that will meet again at the Russian Consulate General in Istanbul has not changed.
Only the status of the main Russian negotiator, Alexander Darchiev, changed. During the first meeting, he held the position of Director of the North American Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry and was appointed the new Russian Ambassador to Washington by decree of President Vladimir Putin just a week after the Istanbul consultations. After quickly receiving an agrément from the American side, Mr. Darchiev arrived at his new place of work at the end of March.
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