On his two-day official visit to Moscow, US President Barack Obama appears to have made headway with his host Dmitry Medvedev in the long-standing dispute over US missile defence plans, as the two leaders agreed to work together to assess threats posed by countries such as Iran and North Korea. They also agreed to explore cooperation in missile defence and intensify talks on establishing a joint centre for early detection of hostile launches.
While most other agreements were worked out by negotiators ahead of the summit, Obama and Medvedev reached the deal on missile defence themselves, said Michael McFaul, a senior Russia specialist in the Obama administration, quoted by the Boston Globe.
Until the meeting, the Russians had refused to accept any statement on missile defence cooperation unless the United States also renounced plans to deploy the system in Poland and the Czech Republic.
Obama said he had told Medvedev that US officials were still completing a review of missile defence options in Europe and would brief Russia on its conclusions "as soon as that review is complete,"’ which he indicated should be before the end of the summer.
Aides said talk of Iran and missile defence dominated the nearly four-hour meeting Obama held with Medvedev.
Independent analysts called the arms agreement a modest but significant first step. The agreement appears to carry political weight, they said, as Russia was obsessed with US missile defence plans in Central Europe, blowing out of all proportion the consequences of a project that it vehemently opposed.
Obama and Medvedev also reached a preliminary agreement to cut the American and Russian nuclear arsenals by as much as a third. Russia and the USA together hold 90% of the world's nuclear arsenal.
The agreement, which lays out a clear yet difficult path to replace the 1991 landmark START arms control treaty that expires in December, was the most significant among those signed at the summit.
The two leaders also signed pacts allowing the transit of US military personnel and weapons through Russia to Afghanistan, restoring military-to-military ties, and pledging cooperation to limit the spread of nuclear materials.
(With agencies.)
