Russia tells US 'it's ready to normalise dialogue'

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday that Moscow "is ready to normalise its dialogue" with Washington if Washington abandons its "confrontational approach" with Moscow.

Lavrov met with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on the sidelines of a series of ASEAN ministers' meetings in the Philippine capital, Xinhua reported.

Both sides discussed Russia's countermeasures to US sanctions.

"Naturally, such actions (the U.S. sanctions), including the illegal seizure of our diplomatic property since December last year, could not be left unanswered," Lavrov said in a statement issued through the TASS Russian News Agency.

"This will be in this way from now on. At the same time, we are ready to normalize the dialogue, if Washington gives up the confrontational line," he added.

In the same statement, Lavrov said he "had a lengthy meeting with Rex Tillerson."

"He (Tillerson) wanted to know, first of all, and he started with this, the details of those decisions, which we had to take in response to the law on anti-Russian sanctions adopted in the U.S. Congress. We gave these explanations," Lavrov said.

--IANS

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