WASHINGTON, November 6. /TASS/. A meeting of the representatives of the US Department of State and Russia’s Foreign Ministry to discuss irritants in bilateral relations as well as the visa issue is planned for the next few days, Russia’s Charge d’Affaires in the United States Sergey Koshelev told the RTVI channel on Friday.
"Literally in the next few days we are expecting that there will be a meeting along the Russian lines in the State Department, along the American lines in the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation. We really hope that a meeting will be held - we call it ‘the consultations on bilateral irritants,’ - during which the issues with regards to ensuring consular services will be discussed, among other things," he said.
According to the diplomat, the consultations between Russia and the US, including on the operations of the consular services are being held on a constant basis. "We are now interacting. On a weekly basis, we have consultations with the Department of State and we try to resolve all operative issues during talks between the embassy and the representatives of the State Department’s Russian bureau," the envoy stressed.
In response to anti-Russian sanctions declared by Washington in April and yet another expulsion of Russian diplomats, Moscow introduced a ban on hiring Russian and third-country citizens by the US Embassy in Russia. The US Embassy in Moscow announced that beginning on May 12, it would reduce consular services, including suspending the issuance of non-diplomatic visas. The issuance of visas to diplomats has also considerably slowed down. Since August 1, the US Embassy in Russia has been operating with a skeleton staff of 120 employees.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry pointed out that nothing prevented the US embassy from filling the quota of 455 diplomats with American employees.