2nd round of Russia-US talks begins in Istanbul

By Elena Teslova and Beril Canakci

MOSCOW/ISTANBUL (AA) - The second round of the talks between the US and Russia started in Istanbul on Thursday.

A US delegation arrived at the Russian Consulate General in Istanbul at 9.45 a.m. local time (0645 GMT) for talks to normalize embassy operations between the two countries.

On Tuesday, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that delegations will meet for a second round of talks in Istanbul to address efforts to "further stabilize the operations of their bilateral missions."

Stating that "there are no political or security issues on the agenda," she stressed that issues related to Ukraine are "absolutely not on the agenda."

The talks, taking place at the residence of the Russian consul general in Istanbul, are expected to last several hours but are unlikely to be as long as the previous round, which lasted more than six hours.

The Russian delegation will be led by Russia's Ambassador to the US Alexander Darchiev, while the US delegation by Deputy Assistant Secretary Sonata Coulter.

Ahead of the meeting, Darchiev announced that some progress had already been made on a number of issues.