Russia is ready to step up dialogue with the United States over disarmament and strategic stability, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, adding that he discussed these issues with his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump in Japan.

"I think that reaching concrete measures in the field of disarmament would contribute to strengthen international stability. Russia has the political willingness to do it. Now it is up to the U.S." to decide, Putin was reported as saying in a interview with Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

Putin, who will meet Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte on Thursday, said he talked about these issues with President Trump on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Japan last month.

"Recently, it seems that Washington has started to reflect about stepping up dialogue with Russia over a wide strategic agenda," Putin added.

Putin has signed a law suspending the INF (Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces) Treaty, a crucial arms control treaty signed by former U.S. president Ronald Reagan and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in December 1987.

The United States is set to pull out of the INF on August 2 citing Russia's development of a missile that breaks the accord.

Together with another key arms control agreement known as New START, which Putin said he is ready to drop it too, the INF was considered a cornerstone of global security.   

The agreement, which caps the number of nuclear warheads held by Washington and Moscow, expires in 2021.  

(Cover: Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump hold talks during a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019. /Reuters Photo)