Putin’s Lavrov Goes to Istanbul to Prepare Trump-Putin Meeting

Russian Foreign minister Lavrov said that delegations from Russia and the US will meet in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss restoring the functioning of their embassies.

“I think it will be clear from the outcome how quickly and effectively we can move forward” on the issue, Lavrov said of the meeting in televised comments during a visit to Doha on Wednesday.

The US and Russia have reduced diplomatic staffing to skeleton crews over the years in tit-for-tat rounds of expulsions over espionage, hacking accusations and eventually Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The two countries decided to restore staffing levels at diplomatic missions during high-level, bilateral talks last week in Saudi Arabia.

That meeting represented an important step toward Trump’s goal of boosting ties with Russian counterpart Putin, which has caused alarm among Washington’s European allies.

Trump is seeking to end the three-year war in Ukraine by engaging Putin, but so far hasn’t included either Ukraine or Europe in negotiations.
Trump and Putin plan to hold a summit, but no date has been set.

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