RT reported that on February 23, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that the meeting between Washington and Moscow would take place in the next few days. The meeting is scheduled to take place next weekend, Ryabkov said.
Mr. Ryabkov revealed that the meeting will be attended by department-level leaders of the two foreign ministries. However, he did not specify who would attend.
The Deputy Foreign Minister stressed that he expected the meeting to bring "real progress" and affirmed that Russia was ready for dialogue with the US to resolve tensions in bilateral relations.
Ryabkov said the two sides were discussing a venue for the meeting on February 22 but only confirmed that the meeting would take place in a third country. He said the upcoming meeting would be a stepping stone for higher-level negotiations, including a dialogue between the Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and the US.
In another development on February 22, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt revealed that a peace deal between Moscow and Kiev proposed by the US could be reached in the next few days, in the context of the US President Donald Trump administration stepping up the negotiation process.
According to RT, relations between Russia and the US have been almost frozen for many years. However, the situation has changed a lot positively since Mr. Trump took office as US President on January 20.
A phone call between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on February 12 paved the way for a meeting between the two countries' delegations in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) last week to discuss many issues, including the conflict in Ukraine.
The Russian delegation is led by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, while the US side is led by Foreign Minister Marco Rubio. After the meeting in Riyadh, both sides expressed cautious optimism about the prospects for cooperation.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the ongoing dialogues as promising and could pave the way for peace talks to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
