Russia, US to hold next bilateral counter-terrorism talks in second half of 2020

Russia and the United States will hold their next bilateral counterterrorism negotiations in the second half of 2020, a top Russian official has said.

Vladimir Tarabin, Head of Russian Foreign Ministry's Department for New Challenges also specified that the talks would be held at the level of coordinators.

"It has been agreed that the next coordinators-level negotiations will be held in the second half of 2020. Prior to that, intense expert-level work will be carried out," Tarabrin told Sputnik.

The diplomat also praised the two countries' cooperation on terrorism fight.

"The Russian-US terrorism fight cooperation is developing in general. We have resumed bilateral counterterrorism dialogue, and it is developing quite dynamically," Tarabrin added.

Russia and the United States held coordinators-level counterterrorism consultations on September 9 in Vienna co-chaired by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov and US Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan.

The participants focused on the prospects for a joint fight against terror threats, and have also agreed to continue constructive Moscow-Washington dialogue on the matter.

"High-ranking diplomats and their colleagues from responsible agencies have summed up interim results of counterterrorism expert-level contacts ... and have framed plans for further cooperation. It should be said that both sides are showing interest in conducting negotiations and aim at reaching such results that would boost the safety of our countries and citizens and enable a more efficient fight against the global terror threat, "Tarabrin commented on the talks.

The official also stressed that Moscow and Washington shared similar stands on multiple aspects of the terrorism fight, noting that both nations believed that foreign supporters of the Islamic State terror group (IS, banned in Russia) should be taken back to the countries of their origin from Syria where they fought alongside the IS.