LONDON – President Barack Obama emerged Wednesday from his first talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev with an agreement to work together on nuclear arms reduction.
Both leaders said they viewed their meeting as a chance to “reset” a relationship that had grown increasingly chilly in recent years. At Medvedev’s invitation, Obama said he would visit Moscow in July.
“As I’ve said in the past, I think that over the last several years the relationship between our two countries has been allowed to drift,” Obama said. “What I believe we’ve begun today is a very constructive dialogue.”
The meeting between the United States and Russia was the highlight of a day that also saw Obama’s first sit-down with Chinese President Hu Jintao, who extracted from the president a promise to visit China in the second half of the year.
For Obama, the day’s vigorous diplomacy was a chance to fulfill a campaign promise to restore America’s good standing in the world and to demonstrate an ability to hold his own in the complicated relationships with Russia and China.
Obama’s agreement with Medvedev continues a long retreat from lingering Cold War-era policy, with a vow to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty when it expires in December.
The pact limits the number of missiles and warheads each nation may have. Obama said the two agreed privately on a long-term goal of eliminating all nuclear weapons.
“After this meeting, I look forward to the future of our relationship with optimism,” Medvedev said, after the two met for more than an hour at the U.S. ambassador’s house in London. “I can only agree that relations with our two countries have been deeply complicated over the years.”
Obama met with Hu and Medvedev on the margins of the G-20 economic summit of world leaders. Many of the issues discussed were worked out in advance at the staff level, providing a framework for the leaders’ discussions.
Obama and Hu agreed to create a “U.S-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue” to explore trade and other issues, the White House said. In a joint statement, the two countries also expressed opposition to protectionism.
In their meeting, Obama alerted Hu that any move by North Korea to launch a missile would result in U.S. action at the U.N. Security Council. The administration has been pushing China to take a more active role in dealing with North Korea.
Russia’s precarious economic position made it more receptive this year to working on improving relations with the United States. But White House officials said they were mindful that former President George W. Bush also started out with a strong relationship with Russia, only to have the alliance sour.
Administration officials hope that by focusing initially on topics with limited disagreement, such as arms proliferation, Obama can smooth a path with Russian leaders for trickier issues such as Iran and Afghanistan.
Less clear from Obama’s talks with his Russian counterpart is the fate of a contentious Eastern European missile defense program backed by Bush and opposed by Russia.
White House officials took pains in the weeks preceding Obama’s meeting with Medvedev to lower expectations and set no clear goals, allowing them to claim a significant victory with the nonproliferation pact.
“My hope is that, given the constructive conversations that we’ve had today, the joint statements that we will be issuing both on reductions of nuclear arsenals, as well as a range of other areas of interest, that what we’re seeing today is the beginning of new progress in U.S.-Russian relations,” Obama said.
