Obama, Medvedev happy on arms pact, signing soon

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and US President Barack Obama are satisfied with the “high level of consensus” on a new pact to cut nuclear arms and it is now possible to talk of a firm date for signing a treaty, the Kremlin said on Saturday.

Russia and the United States have been negotiating for nearly a year a new treaty to reduce their arsenals of nuclear weapons. The pact is a cornerstone of Washington’s efforts to improve relations with Moscow.

Obama and Medvedev held a regular telephone conversation on Saturday and “expressed satisfaction with the high level of consensus on the basic lines of the project of the treaty,” the Kremlin press service said in a statement.

It was “underlined that already now it was possible to talk about concrete dates for presenting the (arms treaty) for signing by the heads of states,” the statement added.

Reuters