Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama discussed the process of ratifying the new strategic arms reduction treaty during a telephone conversation on Friday, the Kremlin's press service said.
"Medvedev and Obama praised the process made in the ratification of the new START treaty and confirmed their interest in continuing to synchronize work on bringing into force this strategically important agreement, which is in the interests of both countries and global security," a statement said.
The treaty was signed by the U.S. and Russian presidents on April 8 in Prague as a replacement for the START 1 treaty that expired in December 2009.
The agreement is yet to be ratified by both chambers of the Russian parliament and the U.S. Sentate. The Russian and U.S. presidents earlier agreed that the ratification processes should be carried out simultaneously.
Earlier on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged the Senate to ratify the treaty after the November 2 mid-term elections.
During the telephone conversation, the presidents also confirmed that they had concluded bilateral talks on Russia's accession to the World Trade Organization and exchanged views on a number of topical international issues.
"The U.S. and Russian presidents reaffirmed their readiness to coordinate steps to strengthen international and regional stability," the press service said.
MOSCOW, September 1 (RIA Novosti)
