MOSCOW, September 20 (HS/RIA Novosti) - A new Russia-US meeting on eliminating irritants in bilateral relations is planned for the coming weeks, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told RIA Novosti.

In the coming weeks [a meeting is planned], he said in a conversation with the news agency, answering a question about when the next meeting on eliminating mutual irritants is planned.

Such meetings have become to a certain extent regular, the diplomat added.

We believe this is useful. The only thing is that the pace of progress from a substantive point of view is lower than desired and lower than expected. Nevertheless, we are not abandoning this, we will keep moving forward, Ryabkov said.

In late June, Ryabkov said that the dialogue between Russia and the US on eliminating irritants in relations was currently stagnant, but new expert consultations were possible before the end of summer.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said the timing of the next Russia-US contact on eliminating bilateral irritants was being worked out.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Indrani Sarkar