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Ryabkov and Shannon "will exchange scheduling proposals in the near future," the State Department official has confirmed

Russia and the United States are set to launch a dialogue on strategic stability involving both ministries in charge of foreign policy and other related agencies, a State Department official told TASS after a recent round of Russian-US consultations on the "irritants" in bilateral relations.

The July 17 round of talks in Washington aimed at eliminating various troublesome issues in bilateral ties was held between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas Shannon.

After the meeting, the US State Department released a statement mentioning the talks on strategic stability and convening a new meeting of the Bilateral Consultative Commission (BCC) overseeing the implementation of the New Start Treaty. Moscow and Washington are "committed to holding future New START Bilateral Consultative Commission and Strategic Stability Talks and will exchange scheduling proposals in the near future," US State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement.

Ryabkov and Shannon "will exchange scheduling proposals in the near future," the State Department official noted.
"The United States and Russia continue to implement the New START Treaty in a pragmatic manner," he said. "The Bilateral Consultative Commission (BCC) is the existing mechanism for implementation of New START. The BCC normally meets twice a year. The Thirteenth Session of the BCC under the United States-Russia New START Treaty was held in Geneva from March 29 to April 11. The U.S. and Russian delegations continued the discussion of practical issues related to the implementation of the Treaty."
"Strategic Stability Talks, which are separate from the BCC, will be a bilateral interagency exchange on a number of issues related to maintaining strategic stability between Russia and the United States," he said, giving no more details on the agenda and participants of these talks.