Kremlin, responding to Trump and Macron, says nuclear dialogue with US is essential

By Dmitry Antonov and Lucy Papachristou

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia said on Friday that it was essential to engage in a dialogue with the United States on arms control after President Donald Trump made a broad call for the world's nuclear powers to ditch their weapons.

The Kremlin said these discussions should also include Europe's nuclear arsenals, especially after French President Emmanuel Macron this week suggested extending the protection of France's nuclear weapons to other countries on the continent.

Trump, who has pledged to make denuclearisation a goal in his second term, said on Thursday: "It would be great if everybody got rid of their nuclear weapons".

He added: "I know Russia and us have by far the most. China will have an equal amount within 4-5 years. It would be great if we could all denuclearise because the power of nuclear weapons is crazy."

Asked about Trump's comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: "Dialogue between Russia and the U.S. on arms control is necessary, especially concerning strategic stability."

He said European nuclear arsenals could not be ignored in this dialogue. The issue, he added, had gained greater urgency since Macron's speech on Wednesday in which he floated the idea of extending a French nuclear umbrella to other countries and called Russia "a threat for France and Europe".

Russia has said the speech contained threats towards it and "notes of nuclear blackmail". The Kremlin has called it highly confrontational and said France was staking a claim to "nuclear leadership in Europe".

Russia and the United States are the world's biggest nuclear powers, with over 5,000 nuclear warheads each. China has about 500, France has 290 and Britain 225, according to the Federation of American Scientists.

A U.S.-Russia nuclear arms treaty that caps the number of strategic nuclear warheads both countries can deploy is due to run out in February 2026. A senior Russian official warned last month that the outlook for extending the treaty, New START, did not look "very promising".

Trump said in February he wanted to have conversations with both Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping about imposing limits on their nuclear arsenals.

He gave no specific timeline for these discussions, but said he hoped to get started in the "not too distant future."

(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)