Medvedev and Obama expect START deal by December
The leaders of Russia and the U.S. hope that a new deal to reduce nuclear stockpiles will be agreed upon within a month.
Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama discussed the matter during a telephone conversation initiated by the American side.
They expressed satisfaction over the current level of mutual understanding achieved by their countries’ delegations, now discussing the terms of the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty in Geneva.
"In the opinion of Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama, all this allows us to expect a full-format and legally binding START document to be ready by the beginning of this December,” the Russian president’s press service was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news agency. “Additional consultations at various levels will be held for this purpose."
Old documents regulating the countries' disarmament strategies expire on December 5.
The presidents have also discussed the talks in Vienna on the Iranian nuclear program and evaluated the results positively, the press service reported.
"Obama noted the crucial role of Russia in bringing the negotiations to a positive conclusion. In turn, Dmitry Medvedev stressed the importance of the U.S. declaration of its readiness to provide written guarantees for the plan to exchange uranium fuel for the research reactor proposed by Russia and the US," the statement said.
On Friday Russia, United States and France approved the International Atomic Energy Agency proposal for the supply of nuclear fuel for the reactor in Tehran.
Meanwhile, Iran is still studying the proposal.
