US, Russia to hold 2nd round of embassy talks in Istanbul
ISTANBUL
The U.S. confirmed that a second round of consultations between Moscow and Washington will take place in the Turkish metropolis Istanbul on Thursday.
"On April 10, U.S. 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 Bruce told a Tuesday news conference.
Saying that "there are no political or security issues on the agenda," she stressed that issues related to Ukraine are "absolutely not on the agenda."
"These talks are solely focused on our embassy operations, not on normalizing a bilateral relationship overall," she said.
On Feb. 27, Russian and U.S. delegations met at the residence of the U.S. consul general in Istanbul to discuss the operations of their respective embassies as part of bilateral normalization efforts.
