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Russia-US Istanbul talks to focus solely on operation of diplomatic missions — US official

The Russian foreign ministry said that the Russian delegation to the second round of Russian-US consultations in Istanbul will be led by Ambassador to Washington Alexander Darchiev and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Russia and Central Europe Sonata Coulter will lead the US delegation

WASHINGTON, April 8. /TASS/. The upcoming Russian-US consultations in Istanbul on April 10 will focus on the operation of the two countries’ diplomatic missions, neither Ukraine nor political or security issues will be discussed, US Department of State Spokesperson Tammy Bruce told a briefing.

"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," she said. "There are no political or security issues on the agenda, and Ukraine is absolutely not on the agenda."

"These 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," she added.

The Russian foreign ministry told TASS earlier in the day that the Russian delegation to the second round of Russian-US consultations in Istanbul will be led by Ambassador to Washington Alexander Darchiev and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Russia and Central Europe Sonata Coulter will lead the US delegation.

The previous round of consultations was held in Istanbul of February 27. The Russian Foreign Ministry assessed the consultations as "substantive and professional." The sides agreed to "continue dialogue via this channel," it noted.

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