Obama-Medvedev discuss “a nuclear-free world”

US President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, leaders of the world's two largest nuclear superpowers, today agreed to start new talks aimed at reducing nuclear arms stockpiles, which in future can be used as a platform to create a ''nuclear-free world.''

''What I believe we've begun today is a very constructive dialogue that will allow us to work on issues of mutual interest,'' Obama said following his first meeting with Medvedev, held on the sidelines of the Group of 20 economic summit in London yesterday.

What is seen by many officials from both countries as a ''very significant breakthrough'' as both countries will have their respective negotiators working on a verifiable, legally-binding follow-on agreement to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), due to expire on 5 December.

Obama and Medvedev agreed to strengthen their obligations under Article VI of the treaty on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and to replace the strategic arms reduction treaty. Talks on the new treaty are to begin immediately, and the two leaders called for a report on results by July.

Under the START, both the superpowers had agreed to reduce their arsenals, whereby the nuclear warheads of both countries would be reduced to 6,000 and delivery vehicles to1,600 per country.

Further, both countries had undertaken to achieve a target of between 1,700 and 2,200 deployed warheads on each side by December 2012, as per a new treaty signed in Moscow by former presidents George Bush and Vladimir Putin in 2002.

Both countries want to further reduce their nuclear arsenal to less than 1,500 per side.
Both presidents acknowledged a ''drift'' in relations between the US and Russia, but said common interests should give them cause to work together.

In a joint statement released after the meeting, both leaders agreed ''that the era when our countries viewed each other as enemies is long over,'' and pledged a ''substantive agenda for Russia and the US to be developed over the coming months and years.''

''We … are ready to move beyond Cold War mentalities and chart a fresh start in relations between our two countries,'' the statement read.

''The presence of these deadly weapons, their proliferation, the possibility of them finding their way into the hands of terrorists, continues to be the gravest threat to humanity,'' Obama said.

''We committed our two countries to achieving a nuclear free world,'' the statement reads.

Still, the two acknowledged that differences remain over missile defense assets in Europe.

The US wants to base missile defense interceptors in Poland and associated radar in the Czech Republic, which is vehemently opposed by Russia.

US officials want to extend the zone of coverage in Europe for the potential long-range missile threat from Iran or others in the region.

Russian officials, however, have downplayed the threat from Iran and have been outspoken opponents of the plan. Both Defense Secretary Robert Gates and former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with former Russian president Vladimir Putin and Medvedev in the past two years in Moscow for talks on the plan.

Obama will be visiting Moscow in July to further forge ahead on the missile defense discussions.

''We discussed new possibilities for mutual international cooperation in the field of missile defense,'' the statement reads. ''The relationship between offensive and defensive arms will be discussed by the two governments.''

Currently, the number of estimated nuclear weapons all over the world is more than 40,000.
The approximate number of nuclear weapons in the world, excluding Israel:

USA – 12,070
Russia – 28,070
China – 2,350 (approximately)
France – 510
UK – 400
India –70 –120 (approximately)
Pakistan –15-45 (approximately)
South Africa is the only country to have given up nuclear weapons