A new round of diplomatic consultations between Russia and the United States is set to take place on April 10 at the Russian consulate in Istanbul, a diplomatic source said on Tuesday.
The new negotiations come on the heels of a meeting in February also in Istanbul where Russian and American officials agreed to talk through issues having to do with the operation of their respective embassies. Those discussions, which were restricted to diplomatic staff and consular affairs, represent continued attempts by both nations to shore up bilateral relations.
As reported by the Russian state news agency TASS, the head of the Russian delegation will be Alexander Darchiev, appointed recently as ambassador of Moscow in Washington. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sonata Coulter will be the representative on the US side. Both delegations will be exclusively composed of diplomats, and their attention will stay focused on bringing the work of the embassies and diplomats’ working conditions to a higher level.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry underlined that the negotiations will focus on technical and organizational issues related to the diplomatic missions, and not on more general political questions.
This increased activity follows efforts to contain strained relations between the two powers, especially in the wake of the conflict in Ukraine. In February, both sides’ officials also sat down in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss potential avenues to a resolution of the conflict, marking a wider diplomatic effort by the administration of US President Donald Trump.
While optimism is low, the Istanbul consultations are viewed as a step toward rebuilding trust and keeping channels open in a time of geopolitical turbulence. Analysts observe that even minimal diplomatic engagement has a decisive role in avert further downward spiral in US-Russia relations.
The next developments of the April 10 meeting should reveal whether or not the two countries can get beyond logistical coordination to meaningful diplomatic breakthrough.
