MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Dmitry Kosyrev) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama, who met today ahead of the G20 summit in London, were expected to agree to start talks on strategic arms reductions.
The issue of arms reductions is a fail-safe subject, and now nobody will be able to say that they have met in vain. According to Reuters, Medvedev and Obama said in a joint statement they had ordered negotiators to report their first results by July, when Obama will visit Moscow for a summit.
The presidents agreed that the new arms reduction treaty should cut the amount of arms to levels lower than those envisioned in the Moscow Treaty.
Russia and the United States possess 90% of the world's nuclear weapons.
During their 60-minute meeting they also signed a declaration of intent and agreed to promote relations.
More details of their immediate intentions will come to light later, but the issue of a missile defense shield in Europe will be most likely postponed. The two leaders have acknowledged differences in their statement but have not said anything else on the matter.
Medvedev and Obama also admitted to differences over the Caucasus but agreed to work on them jointly. And they will definitely highlight the international crisis involving Afghanistan, Iran, Central Asia, and other countries.
How much warmer can Russian-U.S. relations become? How will they change after the reset button is pressed on them?
To answer these questions, one should first look at the two countries' reasons for resetting their relations.
Normal relations with Russia will most likely allow the United States to solve many of its problems, such as Afghanistan and later possibly Iran, more easily and cheaply. Washington is improving relations with Moscow because the previous administration's attempts to pressurize it have not produced the expected result, but have only increased the distance between the two capitals.
Russia needs to normalize relations with the U.S. in order to strengthen its current standing, which the Kremlin likes and which seems quite appropriate in this "world in transition." Russia is now viewed as a standalone power, without claims to global leadership but also with minimum dependence on external influence.
I would say that this is exactly the standing Russia should have. The attempts to draw it into all kinds of unions and associations made in the 1990s were a mistake, but you never know until you try.
Russia now wants the U.S. and the rest of the world to regard it just as they regard China, India or Brazil. Even though they are very different countries, they can and want to cooperate with other countries or groups of countries when they need to.
In short, the nascent thaw in Russian-U.S. relations has rather modest objectives, but this modesty gives everyone hope that the process that started in London will continue and not stop.
The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.
