U.S. National Security Advisor James Jones said Thursday he is satisfied with the meetings he has had during the recent trip to Moscow.
As he mentioned his talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, he said they had held a very good discussion on a range of issues of bilateral cooperation.
General Jones’s consultations with Russian officials in Moscow centered around a new treaty on strategic arms reductions that is due to replace a similar treaty expiring in December, and the Iranian nuclear problem.
Apart from Lavrov, Gen Jones had meetings with Russia’s Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev and President Dmitry Medvedev’s aide Sergei Prikhodko.
The sides agreed to do everything in their power and fulfill the promise made by Presidents Medvedev and Obama to complete talks on the new arms reductions treaty by December, says a statement issued by the National Security Council’s representative in the White House, Benjamin Chang.
The effective START-1 treaty, which the USSR and the U.S. signed in July 1991, expires December 5.
According to Chang, Russian officials and Gen Jones reiterated commitment to the joint Russia-U.S. efforts on Iran.
