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WASHINGTON: The United States said Tuesday it has made progress in its negotiations with Russia toward forging a successor to a Cold War-era treaty to cut nuclear weapons arsenals.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly recalled that both US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev want "significant reductions" in such arsenals under a new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START).
"That's what each... country is working towards. I think that we've made progress in the talks that we've.... had so far," Kelly told reporters without elaborating.
US and Russian negotiators met in Geneva on Tuesday as part of the preliminary START negotiations -- their third and last scheduled round of talks before a summit between their presidents next month.
The talks -- which were held in May in Moscow and June 2-3 in Geneva -- were scheduled to continue Wednesday.
Kelly also played down differences with Russia over its demands that a new START treaty address Moscow's opposition to US plans for a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, countries that were once under Soviet influence.
"We don't make the linkage. We've heard what... the Russian side has said," Kelly added.
"But I think we're just going to focus on the... goal the two presidents have set for themselves, and that's significant reductions in these dangerous arms," Kelly said.
"This is something that I believe will be worked out between the two sides," Kelly said when asked if the differences represented an impediment before the summit.
"I don't want to talk about what might be an impediment or what might not be an impediment. We have negotiations going on," he said.
"I do believe that we will reach the goal that the two presidents have set for themselves," said Kelly.
Russia and the United States have been seeking to create a new agreement to replace START, a 1991 treaty seen as a cornerstone of strategic arms control, before it expires on December 5.
- AFP/yt
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