Russian and US diplomats met in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss normalizing the operations of their respective embassies after expelling each other’s diplomats for many years.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said talks reached during President Donald Trump’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, following the understanding reached during the contacts between senior Saudi Arabia Russia and US diplomats and other officials.
During a Federal Security Agency meeting on Thursday, Putin welcomed the Trump administration’s “pragmatism and realistic views” compared to what he described as his predecessor as “stereotypes and messianic ideological cliches.”
“The initial contact with the new US administration encourages certain hopes,” Putin said. “There is mutual preparation that works to restore relationships and gradually solve a huge amount of systematic strategic problems in global architecture.”
Putin said “some western elites are still determined to maintain global instability,” and “we will attempt to confuse or compromise the dialogue that has begun,” adding that Russian diplomats and security agencies should focus their efforts on thwarting such attempts.
“Back to civilized communication”
In Riyadh, Moscow and Washington agreed to begin work to end the war in Ukraine and improve diplomatic and economic ties. This includes restoring staffing at the embassy. This has been hit hard in recent years by the mutual expulsion of numerous diplomats, office closures and other restrictions.
Officials at the US Embassy in Ankara confirmed that Istanbul focused on issues affecting the operation of their respective diplomatic missions.
Moscow and Washington did not immediately comment after negotiations that Russian press said it lasted more than six hours.
Valentina Matvienko, the Speaker of the Russian Parliament, said during her visit to Turkey on Thursday that US-Russia talks will help restore “a full-scale work on our diplomatic mission.”
“We are confident that we will reach the agreement and return to civilized communications that were confused by the previous administration,” she said in Ankara, according to the Russian press.
“Restoring relationships and dialogues”
Moscow and Washington relations plummeted to the lowest level since the Cold War after Russia illegally annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and invaded Ukraine in 2022.
There were no Ukrainian officials in discussions last week. The Kremlin argued that the conference was to restore relations and dialogue with the United States.
During a visit to Qatar, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the talks in Istanbul “will attempt to resolve systemic problems accumulated as a result of the illegal activities of the previous (US) administration.
Lavrov added, “It’s clear how quickly and effectively we can move forward.”
(Source: AP)