By Janhvi Ahuja
Russia and the United States have decided to restore the peace of Ukraine and reinstate the normal functioning of the diplomatic missions between the two countries. This statement was mentioned by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, after having talks with senior Russian and US officials in Saudi Arabia.
This move seems to have a significant effect on the smoothening of restrictions imposed by the United States on the Russian diplomatic missions. These restrictions were established by the earlier US administration in regards to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and other actions taken by Russia.
The Riyadh talks were conducted as an aim towards settling the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and eventually ending the ongoing war. A swift plan of action was officiated after President Donald Trump took charge of the office last month.
Regarding this, Rubio said that both the parties agreed to take the initiative of establishing teams of officials who shall function together in a quick manner to reinstate the proper functioning of the respective diplomatic missions of both the countries.
However, both Russia and the US have already expelled certain employees and have narrowed down the vacancies of their teams. Each have taken precaution and have limited the number of employees that they teams can appoint to continue the work on bonding both the countries missions. This has left their respective embassies with a rather small staff. These measures of reducing new appointments from both sides have seriously affected and diminished the ability to work effectively in the embassies of Russia and Moscow.
Rubio also said to the Associated Press, “We’re going to need to have vibrant diplomatic missions that are able to function normally in order to be able to continue these conduits.”
However, he further added that he would be willing to discuss the details of the diplomatic missions and their proper peaceful functioning will be restored in a public sphere.
The US State Department also did not respond immediately to the request regarding the markers of progress in the current relations to the diplomatic ties between Russia and the US.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian counterpart of Marco Rubio, highlighted a raise in the functioning of Russia’s missions with the US on a call with Rubio on Saturday, ahead of the discussions with Riyadh.