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Main goals achieved: Lavrov

— Photo: AFP

Looking ahead: U.S. President Barack Obama (left) and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin at Mr. Putin’s residence in Novo-Ogarevo, outside Moscow, on Tuesday.

MOSCOW: Russia has achieved the main goals it set for the maiden visit of U.S. President Barack Obama, the Russian Foreign Minister has said.

The first Russian-American summit in eight years that took place in Moscow on July 6-8 focused on a new nuclear arms reduction pact and the Joint Understanding memorandum on the issue signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his U.S. counterpart incorporated key Russian demands, said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in an interview to Russian television.

“First, we insisted and our American colleagues agreed that the new arms treaty will reflect a link between offensive and defensive strategic arms,” said Mr. Lavrov.

If the U.S. pursued its objective of building a global missile shield, it would render further arms cuts impossible, Mr. Lavrov explained.

“Second, the new pact will ban the deployment of strategic weapons outside one’s national borders”.

“Third, strategic weapons armed with non-nuclear warheads still affect strategic stability because early warning systems cannot distinguish between long-range missiles carrying nuclear and conventional warheads.”

While the two sides agreed on the lower levels for warheads — between 1,500 and 1,675 — they are yet to fix the exact number of delivery vehicles to be allowed under the new treaty, said Mr. Lavrov.

Russia wants to limit missiles and other carriers to 500 for each side, while Americans insist on having almost as many delivery vehicles as they have today, which is 1,100. Mr. Lavrov said Russia had tried to start negotiations on the new arms pact that should replace the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START-1) two years ago, but the Administration of George W. Bush had refused to talk.

In a further success for Russia, a joint statement on Afghanistan signed by the two Presidents reflected Moscow’s long-standing position that the coalition forces in Afghanistan must destroy drug-producing laboratories, Mr. Lavrov said.

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