Medvedev, Obama May Talk on Arms Treaty, Russian Official Says

Medvedev and Obama

Medvedev and Obama may attempt to close the gap on the “Re-START” treaty over the phone in a few days. Sources say that the phone call may be decisive in finalizing terms for the replacement to the START treaty that expired in Dec. 2009. The primary disagreement between the two sides has been the recent missile defense developments in Eastern Europe.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and U.S. President Barack Obama may try to bridge differences delaying completion of a nuclear-arms reduction treaty in a phone call in a few days, a top Russian lawmaker said.

Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the international affairs committee in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, told a forum in the Washington area yesterday that the conversation may be “decisive” in resolving the issues.

“The Russian side is a bit more pessimistic and they believe the disagreement is quite serious and we will need to have much higher flexibility from the American side,” Kosachyov told an audience at the Rand Corp. policy-research group in Arlington, Virginia.