Spring Break
US, Russia call for nuke cuts in sweeping agenda
Associated Press
Issue date: 4/2/09 Section: News
LONDON (AP) - The United States and Russia set a newly ambitious course for global cooperation Wednesday as presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev ordered negotiators into immediate action on a treaty to further reduce nuclear weapons.
Going into their first face-to-face meeting in London, Medvedev had voiced openness to Obama's call for resetting the deeply troubled U.S.-Russian relationship, but few had expected the kind of sweeping statements that emerged from weeks of intense preparatory talks.
While setting in motion fast-track negotiations on a replacement for the seminal 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expires at year's end, the two leaders vowed at the same time to jointly confront other perceived threats. They specifically mentioned the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea and al-Qaida militants who have found refuge in Pakistan.
They set a nominal July deadline for a substitute treaty for START, a date that coincides with Obama's first presidential visit to Russia. That conceivably would leave time to get the new treaty approved in the U.S. Senate by the December expiration of the current agreement. But arms control experts say December is not a hard deadline so long as there is progress.
Sen. Richard Lugar, the Indiana Republican devoted to arms control, said the announcement of intent was "truly remarkable."
Not known for overstatement, Lugar called the joint declaration "almost breathless in its optimism and scope." He spoke in an interview with MSNBC.
Obama's engagement with the Russians marks a stunning reversal from policies of the Bush administration, which was disinclined to take up deep arms control negotiations and had angered Moscow with its intention to install a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov drove that point home in a briefing with Russian reporters after the Obama-Medvedev meeting.
"The new atmosphere of mutual trust," he said, is meaningful in "taking into account mutual interests and readiness to listen to each other." He added, "We missed this much in the past years."
Going into their first face-to-face meeting in London, Medvedev had voiced openness to Obama's call for resetting the deeply troubled U.S.-Russian relationship, but few had expected the kind of sweeping statements that emerged from weeks of intense preparatory talks.
While setting in motion fast-track negotiations on a replacement for the seminal 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, which expires at year's end, the two leaders vowed at the same time to jointly confront other perceived threats. They specifically mentioned the nuclear programs in Iran and North Korea and al-Qaida militants who have found refuge in Pakistan.
They set a nominal July deadline for a substitute treaty for START, a date that coincides with Obama's first presidential visit to Russia. That conceivably would leave time to get the new treaty approved in the U.S. Senate by the December expiration of the current agreement. But arms control experts say December is not a hard deadline so long as there is progress.
Sen. Richard Lugar, the Indiana Republican devoted to arms control, said the announcement of intent was "truly remarkable."
Not known for overstatement, Lugar called the joint declaration "almost breathless in its optimism and scope." He spoke in an interview with MSNBC.
Obama's engagement with the Russians marks a stunning reversal from policies of the Bush administration, which was disinclined to take up deep arms control negotiations and had angered Moscow with its intention to install a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov drove that point home in a briefing with Russian reporters after the Obama-Medvedev meeting.
"The new atmosphere of mutual trust," he said, is meaningful in "taking into account mutual interests and readiness to listen to each other." He added, "We missed this much in the past years."
Be the first to comment on this story