Russia and the United States have made an earnest effort on strategic arms control treaties since the end of the cold war, by announcing Monday that the two had reached a preliminary agreement on cutting each country's stockpiles of strategic nuclear heads by as much as one-third.

A framework agreement, which is intended to replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, was put together by negotiators as US President Barrack Obama arrived in Moscow Monday for his first Russian-American summit. The preliminary deal was approved by Obama and Russian president Dmitri Medvedev.

According to the announced deal, the limit for nulcear warheads would be in a range of 1,500 to 1,675 for each country.

Since taking office in January, Obama has vowed to improve relations with Russia which had steadily worsened in the final years of former US President George W. Bush. At a new conference Monday, Obama and Medvedev hailed the arms control deal and a range of other agreements on issues like Afghanistan, Iran and other matters.

Both men spoke warmly of their negotiations, indicating that they hoped their meeting was an important step in renewed bilateral cooperation.

Medvedev appeared to indicate more willingness to lend Russia's help to the United States in trying to stop the proliferation of nuclear weapons in Iran and DPRK (or North Korea) , a priority of the Obama administration.

"It's our common, joint responsibility, and we should do our utmost to prevent any negative trends there, and we are ready to do that," Medvedev said. "Our negotiations with President Obama have demonstrated that we share the same attitude towards this problem.

Obama declared that the United States and Russia had to set an example by reducing their own arsenals.
"This is an urgent issue, and one in which the United States and Russia have to take leadership," Obama said. "It is very difficult for us to exert that leadership unless we are showing ourselves willing to deal with our own nuclear stockpiles in a more rational way."

In the negotiations, both sides tried to circumvent a dispute that could have derailed the summit — the fate of an American missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, which was proposed by the Bush administration.

American officials have said the system is intended to ward off attacks from countries like Iran, but the Kremlin views it as a threat to Russia.

Before the summit meeting, Medvedev asserted that the United States would have to compromise on the system before Russia would sign off on an arms control agreement.

By People's Daily Online