The 21-nation Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum brought Obama to Singapore, but he is focusing on individual meetings Sunday with Medvedev and with Indonesia's Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, president of the world's largest Muslim nation and Obama's home as a boy. The U.S.-Russia meeting takes place as the nations seek a successor to a Cold War-era agreement.
Obama planned another milestone: joining a larger meeting that includes the leader of military-ruled Myanmar. Obama is sure to face criticism at home, particularly from conservatives, for doing so — a significant step up in his administration's new policy of "pragmatic engagement" that is a shift from years of U.S. isolation and sanctions.
The leaders at the APEC forum also planned an informal breakfast meeting, organized by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Mexican President Felipe Calderon, to discuss the progress of negotiations on a climate change agreement. The prime minister of Denmark, Lars Loekke Rasmussen, the chairman of next month's U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen, was expected to attend.
Obama and Medvedev agreed in April to reach a new nuclear arms reduction treaty to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty I before it expires on Dec. 5. Later, in Moscow in July, they agreed further to cut the number of nuclear warheads each nation possesses to between 1,500 and 1,675 within seven years.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33934253/ns/politics-white_house/
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- current89
- added this
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A weapons treaty that will only bind us. Great.
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- samthesixth
- 8 days ago
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The ultimate goal is to remove the threat of a nuclear war and for the first time in history, Russia and the US are on the same page on the path to achieve that goal.
Once the US and Russia substantially reduce their arsenals, they'll have the moral authority to approach all the other nuclear powers to come to an agreement to simultaneous and verifiable elimination of all nuclear warheads.
This may or may not happen in our lifetimes but I think that the Medvedev + Obama relationship and good will have started the ball rolling towards the dream of a nuclear weapons free world.
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The World will benefit from a reduction of nuclear weapons possessed by the United States and Russia......Obama can expect to receive negative criticism from the warmongers on the right....Although, most of the Right Wing warmongers are cowardly draft dodgers, they are advocates of war and stockpiles of weapons.
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Thats amazing. Working wih Russia on this is for sure a good thing. :)
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- Atalanda_Cameron
- 7 days ago
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I won't allow myself to get too excited yet...
If Medvedev runs and is elected President in the next Russian elections, I'll have a little more faith that he isn't Putin's puppet and the relationship with the United States will continue to foster a reduction and eventual elimination of nuclear warheads.
If Putin simply placed Medvedev as his puppet President as a workaround to becoming President again himself after a one term break, then I think US-Russian relations will once again go downhill -- and along with it the nuclear weapon reduction plan.
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nuclear arms are trix for kids.. remember, mutually-assured destruction. its all about posturing. no one ever plans to use them.. its the sum of all fears. the end of the world.
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Good
