Obama & Medvedev. Moscow Press Conference. July 6, 2009. Part 3
Russia and the US have agreed on strategic arms reduction and on the signing of a new treaty to replace the current one, known as START.
The two states are going to reduce the number of nuclear warheads to between 1500 and 1675, and nuclear missiles to between 500 and 1100.
The main points to be included in the new START treaty are listed in a document named "Joint Understanding on Further Strategic Offensive Arms Cuts and Reductions" which was signed today by the leaders in the Kremlin.
Presidents Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama, on his first visit to Moscow, have also signed a number of bilateral agreements on anti-missile defense and Afghanistan. An agreement over the transit of US weapons, military hardware and personnel through Russian territory in connection with USs efforts aimed at providing security and stabilization of situation in Afghanistan was one of the deals signed.
Also, a joint presidential commission co-chaired by the US and Russian heads of state has been set up. It will consist of 13 working groups covering different fields of cooperation, such as nuclear energy and nuclear security, arms control, foreign policy and counter-terrorism, the fight against drug trafficking and others.
The protocol meeting between President Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama started in a narrow format with only foreign policy aides and foreign ministers participating. It was planned that this meeting would last for half an hour, but the talks continued for almost one-and-a-half hours.
Then the two countries' delegations joined the discussion. The US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, however, was not able to come to Moscow because of an elbow injury she suffered last month.
Speaking at the beginning of the meeting, Medvedev welcomed his American counterpart and wished him every success.
"Our countries are facing a wide range of issues, which we are trying to tackle together economic, world security issues and those connected with strategic arms reduction. I think the agenda of our talks gives us every opportunity to come to important and very necessary solutions," Medvedev said.
The Russian leader also said, as a result of our work today, tomorrow's work and full-scale bilateral communication, he hopes a number of complicated pages in the relations between Moscow and Washington will close, and a new page will open.
President Obama, for his part, said:
"We are confident that we can continue to build on the excellent discussions that we had in London, and that on a whole host of issues including security issues, economic issues, energy issues, environmental issues that the United States and Russia have more in common than they have differences, and that if we work hard during these next few days we can make extraordinary progress that would benefit the people of both countries."
Before the Kremlin meeting, Obama laid flowers at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier near Red Square in Moscow, to commemorate those Russian soldiers who died in WWII.
On Tuesday, the American President is expected to meet Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, and the former, and actually the only President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev.
Unprecedented security measures
Russian authorities are taking unprecedented measures of security. According to the Interior Ministry, the number of people providing safety and security for the American President and his family during his three day stay in Moscow will exceed 10,000. This is significantly more than for any previous state visit.
The airspace above Moscow is going to be a no-go zone for three days, and several fighter jets are ready to take off immediately in case of any threat coming from above just to be on the safe side.
The Interior Ministry of Russia has even mentioned some innovations in terms of security to be applied during the visit of the US President.
Barack Obama has already acknowledged the strictness of Russian security measures. While a senator and member of an American delegation in 2005, he visited the Russian town of Perm to inspect nuclear security facility. Back then, the officials jet was detained for more than three hours, and was cleared only after their diplomatic status was confirmed.
This time it looks like all issues have been taken care of, and everything is going to pass without incident.
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Is that an automatic translator or is someone doing it for him?
iloveyourstory 1 year ago
Bush shows lots of evidence before invade Iraq. All the World knows now this is the biggest lie done by Bush and international community need to bear it rest of their life.
Iran invade is vital for USA's multi-billion dollar weapon business and Oil trade by US Dollar by force. China will loss economy in long run because USA will not give China a drop of Iranian Oil after invading Iran. Its all about Business of trillion Dollar and gear up US economy by doing another war
MonsterIsrael 1 year ago 2
It's not the best English, but I can understand everything he is saying.
rbynum09 2 years ago
He deffinately doesn't speak the best english in the world but not bad.
holiday920 2 years ago
native English speakers, I am interested in your opinion please: what do you think about the interpreters who translated to Obama, whose voices we can hear? I am attending Translating/Conference Interpreting Course and would greatly appreciate your comments, just to know that I could use these postings in my studies, thx a lot!
Unona777 2 years ago