By Jonathan Spicer and Mark Trevelyan
ISTANBUL (Reuters) -Russian and U.S. teams held six hours of talks in Turkey on Thursday to try to restore normal functioning of their embassies, and Vladimir Putin said initial contacts with Donald Trump’s new administration had inspired hope.
The talks, focused narrowly on conditions for each other’s diplomats, provided an early test of the two countries’ ability to reset wider relations, amid a Trump administration outreach effort that has alarmed Washington’s European allies and Kyiv.
The Kremlin last year described relations as “below zero” under the administration of Joe Biden, who backed Ukraine with aid and weapons and imposed sanctions on Russia to punish it for its invasion in 2022.
But Trump, who has promised a quick end to the war, has upended U.S. policy swiftly to open talks with Moscow, beginning with a phone call to Putin on February 12 and a high-level diplomatic meeting in Saudi Arabia six days later.
Russian state news agency TASS said Thursday’s talks, held at the gated residence of the U.S. consul general in Istanbul, wrapped up after some six hours without any statements to the press.
Ukraine and its European allies are worried that Trump’s rapid rapprochement with Moscow could lead to a deal on ending the war that sidelines them and undermines their security. Trump says he wants to end the bloodshed with an early ceasefire.
Putin this week tempered expectations of a quick deal, saying trust between Russia and the United States had to be rebuilt before anything could be achieved.
But in televised comments to members of the FSB security service on Thursday, he said: “I note that the first contacts with the new American administration inspire certain hopes.”
“There is a reciprocal mood to work to restore intergovernmental ties and to gradually resolve the huge number of systemic and strategic problems that have built up in the world’s security architecture.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the Istanbul talks were expected to be the first in a series of contacts aimed at building confidence and removing “irritants” in bilateral relations.
In an example of judicial cooperation, the office of Russia’s prosecutor general said Dmitry Koshelev, wanted by Moscow on suspicion of stealing $1.5 million from a courier at gunpoint in 2014, was being deported from the United States on Thursday.
RUSSIA AND US HAVE DOWNGRADED TIES OVER PAST DECADE
Russia and the United States have expelled diplomats and limited the appointment of new staff at each other’s missions in tit-for-tat measures over the past decade, leaving their embassies thinly staffed.
The U.S. State Department said Thursday’s talks would cover issues such as staffing levels, visas and diplomatic banking.
“To be clear, there are no political or security issues on the agenda. Ukraine is not on the agenda,” a State Department spokesperson said before the meeting.
“The constructiveness of these talks will become apparent very quickly; either issues will get resolved or they won’t. We will know soon if Russia is really willing to engage in good faith.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the outcome of the meeting “will show how quickly and effectively we can move”.
He acknowledged that Russia had “created uncomfortable conditions” for U.S diplomats in Moscow, in what he said was retaliation for Washington’s treatment of Russian diplomats.
Despite their narrow focus, the talks could eventually lead to progress over the whole Russia-U.S. relationship in areas such as nuclear disarmament and economic cooperation.
Both sides see potential for lucrative business ventures. Putin said this week that Moscow would be ready to invite the U.S. to enter joint projects to mine rare earth deposits in Russia and the parts of Ukraine that it has claimed as its own.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said there could be joint development of natural resources in the Arctic, though there were no substantive talks on this yet.
The U.S. delegation in Istanbul was led by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Sonata Coulter, and the Russian team by Alexander Darchiyev, head of the foreign ministry’s North America department. Darchiyev is seen as front-runner to be Russia’s next ambassador to the U.S., a post now vacant.
(Reporting by Jonathan Spicer in Istanbul, Mark Trevelyan in London and Dmitry Antonov in MoscowEditing by Kevin Liffey and Peter Graff)
