Medvedev, Obama praise ‘reset’, pledge further cooperation

The Russian and US presidents have said that they are satisfied with the progress in relations between their nations and stressed that the “reset” policy was absolutely useful.

“These were the best three years in the past decade of Russia-US relations,” Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev told reporters after the meeting with his US counterpart in Seoul on Monday. “We have conducted a very substantial exchange of opinions with my friend and colleague Barack Obama over various different questions of the agenda and of Russia-US bilateral relations. I said that despite the fact that the reset that was talked about a lot over the past three years has received various assessments, I consider what we did in the past three years absolutely useful,” Medvedev noted.Medvedev stressed that a lot had been done starting with the treaty on strategic offensive weapons cuts and ending with the cooperation on most sensitive questions. “I hope this mode of relations will maintain between the Russian Federation and the United States and between the leaders,” he added.US President Barack Obama confirmed the importance of Russia-US cooperation and the positive character of the latest meetings. He especially praised the work on the New START document that allowed to cut the nuclear arsenals and thus to add to peace and security not only in bilateral relations, but also all over the world. Obama added that in his view Russia and the US must continue to coordinate their responses to challenges that arise in the world.After the Seoul summit, Dmitry Medvedev invited Barack Obama to visit St. Petersburg on behalf of President-elect Vladimir Putin and himself. "I am taking this opportunity, Barack, to once again invite you to visit the Russian Federation and even understanding that this is a complex election year, and I already invited you to St. Petersburg on my own and on behalf of President-elect Vladimir Putin, I am doing it once again," the Russian president said. Obama replied that he would like to visit St. Petersburg, but was afraid that he could do it only after the November presidential election.