Medvedev, Obama to make arms declaration: Kremlin

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Medvedev, Obama to make arms declaration: Kremlin

2 hours, 6 minutes ago

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his US counterpart Barack

Obama will make a joint declaration on their weapons arsenals next week, in a

step towards renewing a key Cold War disarmament pact, a Kremlin advisor said on

Saturday.

Amid hopes of warming relations that have seen their worst cooling since the

fall of communism, the two leaders are to hold their first meeting on the

sidelines of the G20 meeting in London on April 2.

" We will end up with two presidential declarations -- a general one about

Russian-American relations and one about strategic offensive arms, " Medvedev's

foreign policy advisor Sergei Prikhodko said.

" The texts are turning out well and should be starting point for drawing up

future work, " he said, according to Russian news agencies.

He hoped Medvedev and Obama would then make initial agreements on a renewal of

the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), a Cold War nuclear disarmament pact

that expires in December, at a subsequent meeting after the G20.

The two sides would work " so that already at the next summit meeting the first

concrete agreements can me made and the work can be completed by the end of the

year. "

Talks on renewing START, which led to huge reductions in the US and Russian

nuclear arsenals after its signing in 1991, stalled under the previous

administration of former US president W. Bush.

But officials in the Obama administration have indicated that renegotiating the

treaty is a priority.

The Obama administration has coined the phrase " press the reset button " to

describe aims for Russia policy, a slogan that has also been happily repeated in

Moscow.

According to Prikhodko, the London meeting would also see the two leaders agree

a date for their next encounter.

" We hope that there will be an announcement about the date as a result of the

London meeting, " he said.

Relations between Russia and the United States have been frayed by Moscow's war

with Georgia last year and also the Bush administration's plans to place missile

defence facilities in Central Europe.

Moscow has said the plans to build a radar base in the Czech Republic and

install interceptor missiles in Poland were directed against Russia. But

Washington insisted they aimed to counter threats from Iran.

The eastern expansion of Western military alliance NATO to include former Warsaw

Pact states has also been a bone of contention.

Russia is hoping that Obama will drop the missile defence plans and Prikhodko

said that Medvedev would remind the US president of Moscow's concern that its

own security is affected by the plan.

" The issue is far from being closed, " he said.

Prikhodko said they would also discuss the situation in Washington's arch foe

Iran, in light of Obama's stated ambition to end three decades of acrimony with

Tehran, as well as Afghanistan.

Obama this week confirmed he wanted to " reset " US relations with Russia but

argued NATO should still be open to countries aspiring to join the alliance.