The US and Russia both said yesterday that they had made progress towards normalising the work of their diplomatic missions, with the US saying it was still concerned about a Russian policy prohibiting the employment of local staff.
The meeting of the US and Russian delegations in Istanbul followed initial talks in February, after the war in Ukraine triggered the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.
The talks were led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Russia and Central Europe Sonata Coulter and Russia’s new ambassador to Washington, Alexander Darchiev.
The US delegation spent some six hours at the Russian consulate building in central Istanbul for the talks, a Reuters witness said. A State Department spokesperson had said on Tuesday that Ukraine was not on the agenda.
The State Department said yesterday’s talks continued “the constructive approach” established in the February 27 meeting.
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