WASHINGTON: The United States and Russia will hold talks on Thursday in Istanbul on restoring some of their embassy operations that have been drastically scaled back following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the US State Department said.
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 winds down fighting in Ukraine.
The two sides will “try to make progress on further stabilizing the operations of our bilateral missions,” 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.
“These talks are solely focused on our embassy operations, not on normalizing a bilateral relationship.”
The talks are going ahead despite Russia rejecting a Ukraine-backed US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday lamented the lack of a US response.
Trump a day later told reporters that he was not happy that Russia was “bombing like crazy right now.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has previously said that it is important for both the United States and Russia to resume higher staffing at their respective embassies to improve contacts, regardless of the situation in Ukraine.
US, Russia to meet Thursday in Istanbul on restoring embassy operations
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US, Russia to meet Thursday in Istanbul on restoring embassy operations
- State Department says the two sides will hold talks on Thursday in Istanbul
Indonesian rescuers race to find dozens still trapped in deadly West Java landslide
- At least 47 people were killed in the landslide that tore through a mountainside village
- Rescuers continue searching for some 80 people who remain missing as of Tuesday
JAKARTA: A massive search operation continued in Indonesia’s West Java on Tuesday with rescue workers racing to find dozens of missing people, including members of an elite marine force feared buried in a landslide that has already killed at least 47.
Days of heavy rain that inundated the province’s West Bandung regency triggered a predawn landslide on Saturday, which buried a marine training camp and some 30 houses in Pasirlangu village on the slopes of Mount Burangrang.
Rescuers have had to dig through tons of mud, debris and uprooted trees, as bad weather and unstable soil intermittently hampered search operations since the weekend.
As search operations entered their fourth day on Tuesday, Indonesian authorities mobilized heavier equipment to sift through thick mud and used drones to identify and expand search locations, said Ade Dian Permana, who heads the Search and Rescue Agency in Bandung.
“As of 5:20 p.m., the total number of bodies we have recovered since the first day until the fourth day now stands at 47,” Permana said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
“We are looking for about 80 people … The number of people impacted and missing may change, which means there could be more than what we are currently looking for.”
The number of people missing was double that reported on Monday evening, when it stood at 42.
Among those missing were members of a 23-member marine unit training for a long-duration assignment on the Indonesia-Papua New Guinea border, at least four of whom have been confirmed among the dead, Navy Chief of Staff Adm. Muhammad Ali has confirmed, while the rest remain unaccounted for.
“Heavy rain over two nights triggered the slope failure that buried their training area,” Ali told reporters on Monday.
Floods and landslides are common in Indonesia during seasonal rains from October to March.
The landslide in West Java is the latest in a string of severe weather-related disasters in the archipelagic country, where floods and landslides on Sumatra island late last year killed more than 1,200 people and displaced over half a million.
In the capital Jakarta, officials have issued work-from-home and flexible work recommendations due to extreme weather, with heavy rains triggering widespread flooding in the city since the beginning of the year.
