Washington DC - The US and will hold talks on Thursday in Istanbul on restoring some of their embassy operations that have been drastically scaled back following Moscow's invasion of , the US State Department said.
The two sides will "try to make progress on further stabilizing the operations of our bilateral missions," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters on Tuesday.
The talks, , come after President reached out to Russia following the start of his second term and offered better ties if it winds down fighting in Ukraine.
The two sides will "try to make progress on further stabilizing the operations of our bilateral missions," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters on Tuesday.
"There are no political or security issues on the agenda, and Ukraine is not – absolutely not – on the agenda," she said.
"These talks are solely focused on our embassy operations, not on ."
The talks are going ahead despite Russia to a Ukraine-backed US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday the lack of a US response to recent strikes from Russia.
Trump a day later that he was not happy that Russia was "bombing like crazy right now."
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has previously said that it is important for both the US and Russia to resume higher staffing at their respective embassies to improve contacts, regardless of the situation in Ukraine.
