Russia Hails Second Round of Peace Talks ‘Meaningful and Business-like’, Proposed Return of Direct Flights
The United States said the Istanbul negotiation with Russia on Thursday were “constructive”, while the Moscow delegation praised them as “meaningful” after the second round of rapprochement talks broke.
Diplomats from the United States and Russia met and spoke at the U.S. consul general’s residence in Istanbul, Turkey for over six hours on Thursday, the latest meeting between the countries in a bid to normalise diplomatic relations before moving on to the larger matter of finding an solution to the Ukraine War. The discussions were said to have been focussed on allowing the two countries to return to being able to properly operate embassies in each others’ nations.
The U.S. State Department said their delegation had been led by Sonata Coulter, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Russia and Central Europe, and revealed in a statement that in the talks they had raised issues around financing missions and being able to keep staff sustainably at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. The American team found the discussions “constructive” and in the six hours of talks “both sides identified concrete initial steps to stabilize bilateral mission operations”, they said.
An agreement was reached to hold further meetings although when and where was not stated.
Russia, for their part, said in a statement through their Ministry of Foreign Affairs that: “The discussions were substantive and businesslike. It was agreed to continue the dialogue through this channel.” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov apparently aimed to capitalise on the headlines generated by the meeting to recast Russia in a positive light for foreign observers, insisting on Thursday: “We want to build dialogue not only with the US, but with all countries from a position of mutual respect and mutual benefit”.
The Russian ministry spoke in similar language to the U.S. in their statement, stating the purpose of the discussion from their perspective had been “to ensure unimpeded financing of the activities of diplomatic missions of Russia and the United States on a reciprocal basis”. Including something of a barb towards the previous Biden White House, Russia insisted the present difficulties in relations between the two countries were not their fault — an assertion many in the West would question — and stated that their hope was to overcome “numerous ‘irritants’ inherited from previous American administration”.
“Joint steps” were agreed and the ministry said they had “particularly emphasised” the need for “practical results”. In language more specific than the United States statement, Russia also said they had spoken to their American counterparts about six diplomatic properties in the U.S. “illegally seized in the period 2016-2018”, and to consider allowing the resumption of “direct air links” between the two countries.
The cessation of direct flights from much of the Western world to Russia was enacted as part of sanctions packages against the Russian Federation in 2022 in response to its invasion of Ukraine.
Thursday’s talk followed another in-person meeting between Russian and American delegations in Saudi Arabia last week, the first such meeting between the nations in years, and a phone call between President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin before that. An ambition of these talks is to get diplomatic relations between the states to a point where the two leaders are able to meet in-person to negotiate an end to the Ukraine War, but no meaningful progress on that has been made public.
One facet of talks so far has been grumbling from Europe and Ukraine in particular about their not having been invited to these talks. While U.S. diplomats have been mollifying, pointing out these first meetings are specifically about American-Russian relations and Europe and Ukraine will have a seat at the table when relevant in the future, Russia’s Putin was more direct, warning European leaders not to attempt to undermine the process.
Addressing a meeting of the Russian domestic spy agency the FSB on Thurday, Putin praised the talks process saying has a spirit of reciprocity, pragmatism, and realism, and that it inspires “certain hopes”. But he went on: “We understand that not everyone is happy with the resumption of Russian-American contacts. Some Western elites [the EU and UK, most likely] are still determined to maintain instability in the world, and these forces will try to disrupt or compromise the dialogue that has begun… We need to be aware of this and use all possibilities when it comes to diplomacy and our intelligence services to disrupt such attempts.”
Diplomatic solutions to the war are to progress in a different direction on Friday, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky having flown to Washington D.C. yesterday evening ready for a meeting with President Trump today. It is expected he is to sign Trump’s critical minerals deal, giving the U.S. a direct interest in the future prosperity of Ukraine while also achieving a return on investment for the U.S. taxpayer’s considerable financial investment in the war so far.
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