Obama starts visit to Russia

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(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-06 20:54

MOSCOW: US President Barack Obama arrived here Monday afternoon, starting his first visit to Russia since he took office in January.

US President Barack Obama (R) shakes hands with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev at the Kremlin in Moscow July 6, 2009. [Agencies]

During the three-day visit that starts with the US president laying a wreath at the Grave of the Unknown Soldier near the Kremlin wall, Obama is scheduled to meet President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

Medvedev and Obama will focus on a new treaty on nuclear arms cuts during their meeting, Andrei Nesterenko, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said Thursday.

"High on the agenda will be a new strategic arms reduction treaty that will replace the old one. The two presidents will sum up the results of the work that had been done and will give instructions to further efforts," Nesterenko said.

They are also expected to touch on the situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Iran, Afghanistan and the Middle East, he said.

Medvedev and Obama will sign a memorandum of understanding on strategic arms reduction, Medvedev's foreign policy aide Sergei Prikhodko said Friday.

"It will be a framework document, which will outline benchmarks for further work on an agreement to replace the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I)," Prikhodko was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

The document will be a politically binding agreement, not a legally binding one, Prikhodko said.

He said the presidents will also sign an agreement on the transit of military and other cargos to Afghanistan, a joint statement on Afghanistan and a joint declaration on nuclear cooperation.

They will also sign a framework document on cooperation between the two armed forces, resuming "full-scale military contact" following a freeze since last August's war in Georgia, he said.

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