Russian diplomat hopes for new US talks this autumn

Russia hopes a new round of talks can be scheduled with U.S. representatives this autumn to clear up irritants in their relations, a senior diplomat was quoted as saying early on Tuesday. The United States and Russia held two sets of talks in Istanbul largely devoted to diplomacy and the operation of embassies - one meeting in February, the second in April. Both sides said the talks had made progress on the issues.

U.S. President Donald Trump and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin have since met - last month in Alaska - but those talks have yet to lead to an agreement to end more than 3-1/2 years of war in Ukraine. Sergei Ryabkov, a deputy foreign minister, told TASS news agency that among the reasons for a delay in arranging a new meeting on diplomatic matters was a desire on both sides to avoid a failure to achieve significant results.

"In any case, if we are talking about some time frame, we are aiming to try to hold such an event at least by the end of autumn," TASS quoted Ryabkov as saying. There had been impediments, like technical or timetabling issues, he said, "but that was not the main thing."

"The primary reason was that we did not want such a meeting to be without tangible progress. There is a risk that we will remain in one spot, that we will achieve no forward movement," Ryabkov told TASS. "It's therefore better, while we have political will on both sides, to keep working behind the scenes and perhaps it will be possible to form a basis for the next step or steps and all the logistical, organisational aspects will be resolved quickly."

At the second round of talks in Istanbul, the U.S. delegation spent some six hours at the Russian consulate building in central Istanbul. A State Department spokesperson had said that Ukraine was not on the agenda. The State Department said the meeting continued "the constructive approach" established at the February talks.

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