Did Russias President Medvedev urge Obama to put aside their differences?”
The big news so far from President Obama’s visit to London is his just completed meeting with Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev, at left. The two leaders agreed to negotiate a new treaty designed to further reduce and limit strategic weapons. “As leaders of the two largest nuclear weapons states, we agreed to work together to fulfill our obligations under Article VI of the Treaty on Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) and demonstrate leadership in reducing the number of nuclear weapons in the world,” a joint statement read. “We committed our two countries to achieving a nuclear free world, while recognizing that this long-term goal will require a new emphasis on arms control and conflict resolution measures, and their full implementation by all concerned nations. We agreed to pursue new and verifiable reductions in our strategic offensive arsenals in a step-by-step process, beginning by replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new, legally-binding treaty.” Below is
Russia’s Medvedev urges Obama to put aside differences Thu Jul 2, 2009 6:11am EDT By Oleg Shchedrov MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said on Thursday Washington and Moscow must set aside the power politics of the past and use a forthcoming summit to unite in tackling global economic and political problems. President Barack Obama’s first visit to Moscow next week is expected to demonstrate the first fruits of his and Medvedev’s attempts to “reset” thorny relations, which reached post-Cold War lows under the previous U.S. administration. At their first brief meeting in London on April 1, Medvedev and Obama committed themselves to cooperating on further nuclear arms cuts and on solving the conflict in Afghanistan where a U.S.-led international force is fighting the resurgent Taliban. “The new U.S. administration headed by President Obama is now demonstrating readiness to change the situation, and build more effective … relations,” Medvedev said in a video blog entry
