Lavrov holds meeting with Pompeo in Washington

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a meeting in Washington yesterday. 

During the meeting, the officials discussed the most important issues: arms control, trade, domestic affairs and others.

Lavrov urged the United States to submit arms control proposals in concrete form to improve cooperation on the matter. "It will be easier, possibly for us and for other people who the US have in mind, to put this [arms control conditions] on paper for it to be formulated and worded in some way," he said.

The Russian foreign minister also said that he had reconfirmed Russia's position that it is prepared to extend the New START Treaty. "Russia has reconfirmed it's offer, [we] are ready now to make the decision to extend this treaty," the Russian diplomat noted.

Sergei Lavrov said that Russia is ready to refrain from deploying intermediate-range missiles as long as the United States reciprocates.

The Russian foreign minister said that Moscow is prepared to help facilitate the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula.

"We believe that in order to get out of this impasse, it is necessary to move forward with the reciprocal measures, measure for measure. We are prepared to actively aid on this track in order to overcome the current situation," he noted.

Lavrov said that trade between Russia and the United States has increased roughly by 30% during the Trump administration and now stands at $27 billion.

The Russian FM said that Moscow is prepared to exchange assurances with the United States on non-interference in each other’s domestic affairs.

"Incidentally, we have offered multiple times and reminded about that today to put on paper a mutual obligation on non-interference in domestic affairs of each other. And we have prepared to do something similar at this point in time, at this very crucial stage," the Russian top diplomat noted.

He also said that he had not seen any proof in support of allegations that Russia has interfered in US elections because such proof does not exist.

Lavrov said that the United States and Russia have agreed to find approaches to alleviate triggers in bilateral relations such as visa issues and diplomatic property.

 "We will continue our dialogue, we have reciprocal intent to do that and we have opportunities… to normalize our bilateral relations," Sputnik cited him as saying.

Lavrov also invited his U.S. counterpart to visit Russia at any convenient time.