On Thursday, April 10, delegations from the United States and the Russian Federation arrived in Istanbul, where negotiations are to be held on the normalization of the work of the diplomatic missions of both countries, writes IZ. This was reported by Reuters, whose journalists recorded the arrival of cars to the building of the Russian consulate in the center of the Turkish city.
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Russian delegation is headed by the new ambassador to the United States, Alexander Darchiev, and the American side is represented by the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State, Sonata Coulter. The parties plan to discuss issues related exclusively to the functioning of diplomatic missions, which has been complicated by years of disputes, accusations of pressure and restrictions on real estate.
Official Washington emphasized that Ukraine is not a topic of these negotiations. “ Ukraine is not, absolutely not on the agenda ,” said US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce on Tuesday. She added that “these negotiations are focused solely on the work of our embassies, and not on the normalization of bilateral relations as a whole, which can happen, as we have already noted, only after peace is established between Russia and Ukraine.”
In recent years, both sides have repeatedly complained about restrictions and difficulties in the work of diplomats. Russia emphasizes that Western sanctions have caused difficulties in paying salaries to its employees. American diplomats, for their part, report restrictions on movement within Russia and cases of intimidation.
Among the facilities that were subject to US restrictions were the Russian consulates in San Francisco and Seattle, trade missions in Washington and New York, as well as the Killenworth estates on Long Island and Pioneer Point in Maryland.
As a reminder, it was previously reported that Apple lost $250 billion due to Trump's new tariffs.