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U.S., Russian delegations to hold talks in Istanbul focused on embassy operations, State Department says
Summary
The State Department confirmed that U.S. and Russian delegations will meet in Istanbul to discuss bilateral mission operations and said the talks will not address Ukraine or normalization of relations.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed that U.S. and Russian delegations will meet in Istanbul on April 10 for talks focused solely on stabilizing the operations of bilateral missions.
The spokesperson said the meeting is the second such session and emphasized that it concerns consular and mission logistics rather than political or security issues; the spokesperson explicitly said Ukraine is not on the agenda and that the talks do not constitute a step toward normalizing bilateral relations.
“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,” the spokesperson said.
The department described the talks as narrowly scoped to operational questions such as staffing and mission support; the spokesperson did not provide an attendee list beyond saying delegations will meet and declined to discuss classified or security details.
