Russia expects dialogue with Donald Trump on nuclear weapons: Sergei Lavrov

Russia expects to have a dialogue with the Trump administration on strategic stability, including on nuclear weapons, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday.

Lavrov added to reporters that such a dialogue could cover hypersonic weapons, a US missile shield in Europe, space weapons and nuclear testing.

He said that Russia was ready to meet with Donald Trump's administration to discuss these issues after the US president-elect takes office.

In an interview published by The Times, Trump has called for a deal with Russia that would "very substantially" reduce nuclear arsenals and ease sanctions against Moscow.

"They have sanctions on Russia -- let's see if we can make some good deals with Russia. I think nuclear weapons should be way down and reduced very substantially, that's part of it," Trump said on Sunday. "But Russia's hurting very badly right now because of sanctions, but I think something can happen that a lot of people are gonna benefit," said the president-elect, who has previously expressed admiration for Russian leader Vladimir Putin. There were no details about the specific sanctions that Trump had in mind, or their range.

Under Barack Obama, the US applied various sanctions against Moscow for its involvement in Ukraine, the Syrian war and for alleged cyber attacks to influence the US election. Washington's European allies imposed sanctions against Russia over Ukraine in 2014. Those measures were renewed on December 19.