US, Russia meet in Istanbul for talks on embassies

Istanbul: US and Russian delegations met in Istanbul on Thursday for talks on restoring the functioning of their embassies, which drastically scaled back staffing following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

The talks, the second of their kind, come after President Donald Trump reached out to Russia following the start of his second term and offered better ties if it wound down fighting in Ukraine.

An AFP reporter said Russian and US delegations had arrived at the Russian consulate building in Istanbul.

The two sides will "try to make progress on further stabilizing the operations of our bilateral missions," US State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters on Tuesday.

"There are no political or security issues on the agenda, and Ukraine is not -- absolutely not -- on the agenda," she said.

The talks are expected to last several hours, Russian news agencies reported.

Russia's US envoy Alexander Darchiev told journalists on Wednesday that the talks would focus on "getting rid of the toxic legacy of the previous US administration, which set strict limits on the activities of Russian diplomatic missions".

Russia's invasion of Ukraine plunged ties between Moscow and Washington to their lowest levels since the Cold War.

Since Trump's return to the White House, Russian and US officials have been engaged in several tracks of talks, ranging from negotiations over a Ukraine ceasefire and restoring economic ties to technical issues like those on the agenda on Thursday.

Both sides have been operating their embassies with skeletal staffing for years due to diplomatic expulsions.

Moscow also wants the United States to return diplomatic property it claims has been "seized", including two summer houses used by embassy officials.