The Russian president is ready for close cooperation with the new U.S. administration on all bilateral issues, including disarmament, a Kremlin spokesperson said on Tuesday.
“Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is ready for thorough and joint work on the entire agenda of bilateral cooperation, including on disarmament issues.” Natalya Timakova said.
“What we”ve heard lately from representatives of the new U.S. administration with regard to the future of Russian-American relations has received a positive reaction in the Kremlin,” she added.
U.S. President Barack Obama called late on Monday for joint nuclear non-proliferation efforts to be led by Russia and the United States.
“One of my goals is to prevent nuclear proliferation generally. I think that it”s important for the United States, in concert with Russia, to lead the way on this,” Obama said.
Obama also said that “it is important for us to restart the conversations about how we can start reducing our nuclear arsenals.”
U.S. media have reported that negotiations on a new arms-control pact will be led by U.S. Secretary of Secretary Hillary Clinton.
The START-I Treaty places a limit of 6,000 strategic or long-range nuclear warheads on each side, and limits the number of delivery vehicles, such as bombers, land-based and submarine-based missiles, to 1,600 each.
