The US and Russia agreed to meet at the expert level on Thursday, with the focus on the operations of the respective diplomatic missions. If the meeting successful, they will address the theme “at a higher level.”
The United States and Russia agreed to start conversations “about issues that affect the operations of the respective diplomatic missions,” said a state department spokesman on Wednesday, who said the agreement occurred during a meeting in Riyadh of Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Minister of Foreign Affairs Russian Serguéi Lavrov.
The spokesman, who ruled out other issues during the match, said the conversations are scheduled for tomorrow, Thursday, February 27.
“To be clear, there are no political or security issues on the agenda. Ukraine is not on the agenda,” the official told Voice of America.
“The agenda of this meeting is strictly limited to operational issues related to the bilateral diplomatic missions of the countries: the United States embassy in Moscow and the Russian embassy and its consulates in New York and Houston. Russia's mission before the UN is not on the agenda,” the spokesman added.
The State Department source also indicated that the US delegation will be led by Sonata Coulter, deputy sub -secretary of State in charge of supervising the policy towards Russia and Central Europe.
The Russian delegation will be presided over by the director of the North Atlantic Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Aleksandr Darchiyev.
The delegations include officials of the State headquarters and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as well as the respective embassies.
Basically, the meeting will address “specific issues of the agenda include personnel levels, visas, diplomatic banking and other operational issues.”
The state department spokesman said that the success of this meeting will depend new meetings “to deal with these issues at a higher level.”
Russia confirms the meeting
Earlier on Wednesday, Kremlin said They were making preparations for expert conversations between Russia and the United States to follow up on a high -level meeting last week and a previous call between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov reiterated that there was an understanding for Trump and Putin to meet in person after a thorough preparation, but said there were still no details about when and where it would happen.
He said that the two leaders could speak again by phone if necessary, but that there were no current plans for it.
“Contacts are being prepared at the expert level through Foreign Affairs Ministries,” said Peskov, without giving more details.
(With report by Celia Mendoza, journalist from La LA Youth)