MOSCOW, April 14. /TASS/. Moscow is open for a dialogue with Washington on new advanced developments, including hypersonic weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an online interview with Russian and foreign media on Tuesday.
"We are also open for a talk on new advanced developments, including hypersonic weapons, in the context, and I want to emphasize it, of all the aspects and all the factors that influence strategic stability," Lavrov said.
This talk should cover the plans of deploying weapons in outer space, strategic conventional armaments, the future of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty and other issues, the Russian foreign minister explained.
Moscow is ready to discuss cooperation with Washington in the peaceful use of outer space, Sergey Lavrov stated.
"As for outer space, incidentally speaking, we are ready to talk with US colleagues not only about the long-standing Russian-Chinese initiative aimed at preventing the deployment of weapons in outer space. <...> But we are ready, while continuing discussions on this issue, to hash over cooperation in the peaceful use of outer space," Lavrov said.
Responding to a question about what Moscow was seeking from the Russia-US working group on outer space, Lavrov pointed out that the group was the result of a long-lived dialogue. "You know, it is not that we are seeking something, this is simply the result of our dialogue with the United States that has been going on for quite a long time regarding which mechanisms and to solve which world problems both Moscow and Washington consider the most essential, as well as on which of these issues Russian-American interaction can be maximally fruitful," the Russian foreign minister explained.
Outer space and all that is linked with it is one of such issues where Russia and the United States hold leading positions, "which was recently confirmed during a talk of President [of Russia Vladimir] Putin with the Russian-US crew of the International Space Station" and during telephone talks of the presidents of both countries, in particular, during that on Cosmonautics Day, April 12, Lavrov pointed out.
Russia's top diplomat announced the intention to hold phone talks with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. "Mike Pompeo called me a couple of weeks ago, I want to speak to him on the phone again in a few days’ time. [He] touched upon the issue of resuming arms control negotiations and strategic stability in general. We actively welcome such interest of the American partners because we’ve long been urging them to address these issues in a more active way," Lavrov said Tuesday.
He noted that Russia and the US intend to resume work on the strategic stability as a whole more substantively, which, accordng to him, will be possible after the coronavirus pandemic is over. "Right now, we all work remotely. There are things, including some strategic stability points that could be discussed via a video or phone conference painlessly. And then there are issues that should better be postponed until the global situation allows us to resume direct diplomatic contact," Lavrov commented.
The Russian minister also highlighted the latest round of consultations between deputy heads of diplomatic agencies in mid-January in Vienna — the Russian delegation was led by the Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, while the American one was led by Assistant Secretary of State for International Security and Non-Proliferation Christopher Ford. "However, we want more specific discussions particularly on the arms reduction treaty and its future fate," Lavrov pointed out.