Moscow: An in-person meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump will be preceded by difficult technical contacts, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday. "We need to first conduct difficult technical negotiations. On Monday, our negotiators will go to Riyadh to begin this difficult process," Peskov told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin.

According to Namibia Press Agency, Peskov stressed that a meeting between Putin and Trump should be properly prepared. A Russian-US expert-level meeting will take place in the Saudi capital of Riyadh on March 24. Russia will be represented by Grigory Karasin, head of the Russian upper house's foreign affairs committee, and Sergei Beseda, an adviser to the director of the Federal Security Service (FSB). The talks are expected to be devoted to the Black Sea grain initiative.