Obama,Medvedev discuss weapons treaty

President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have talked about ongoing negotiations for a successor to an expired nuclear weapons treaty.

President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev have talked about ongoing negotiations for a successor to an expired nuclear weapons treaty. The Kremlin said the two sides are making “substantial progress.”

An Obama administration official confirmed the two presidents talked by telephone about the negotiations,but had no further details. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the administration had not announced the discussion publicly.

The Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty,known as START,expired Dec. 5. Both governments have spent the past several months negotiating a new pact that would further reduce the size of the nuclear arsenals on both sides.

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White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said this past week that the two sides are making progress.

The Kremlin statement said the two presidents “continued a detailed exchange of opinions about the results achieved and the prospects of completing work on a document that is of vital importance for strategic stability in the world.”

Medvedev and Obama “noted with satisfaction that the work of the delegations of both countries in Geneva has an intense and purposeful character that makes it possible to speak of substantial progress in the negotiation process,” the statement continued.

The leaders “agreed to tell the negotiators to continue their energetic work without lowering the level and pace of cooperation with the goal of reaching final agreement on all issues,” the statement said.