President Vladimir Putin has expressed optimism about contacts between Russia and the United States as diplomats from the two countries met in Turkiye for talks on restoring diplomatic presence.
The Russian and American teams held six hours of talks in the city of Istanbul on Thursday, trying to restore normal functioning of their embassies, according to Reuters.
The talks wrapped up without any official statements, but Russian President Putin told a meeting of the Federal Security Service that initial contacts had inspired hope.
“I would like to note that the first contacts with the new U.S. administration inspire certain hopes," Russia’s TAAS news agency quoted Putin as saying.
He also spoke of “a mutual dedication to work towards restoring interstate relations and gradually resolving the enormous volume of accumulated systemic and strategic problems in the global architecture.”
The Thursday talks in Istanbul followed negotiations between U.S. and Russian diplomats in Riyadh last week, where they agreed that diplomatic ties are restarted between the two countries. The rapprochement efforts began after U.S. President Donald Trump held a phone call with Putin on February 12.
Ties between Washington and Moscow reached what the Kremlin described as “below zero” under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden who imposed sanctions on Russia over the Ukraine war, and provided Kiev with weapons and financial aid.
President Trump, who began his second term on January 20, has promised to end the war started in February 2022, causing rifts with Washington’s European allies and Ukraine.
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