US President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that America and Russia “share common interests” in building a secure, free and flourishing world but rejected complaints about US support for missile defence and expansion of the NATO alliance into Eastern Europe.

In a speech intended to highlight his two-day visit, Obama reached out to national sensibilities here by assuring that “America wants a strong, peaceful and prosperous Russia” and declaring that “it is not for me to define Russia’s national interests.”

Yet he made the case that Russia should join the US in curbing emerging nuclear powers like Iran and in promoting greater liberties at home. “By no means is America perfect,” he said in a speech at the New Economic School. “But it is our commitment to certain universal values which allows us to correct our imperfections, to improve constantly and to grow stronger over time.” He added, “If our democracy did not advance those rights, then I — as a person of African ancestry— wouldn’t be able to address you as an American citizen, much less a president.”

Obama’s speech came one day after he signed an agreement in principle with President Dmitri A Medvedev to cut Russian and American strategic nuclear arsenals by at least one-quarter.

As he began his second day in Moscow, Obama had breakfast with PM Vladimir V Putin, widely viewed as Russia’s paramount leader, in a meeting that ran long over its scheduled time. Speaking to reporters beforehand, Putin noted that there had been periods of “grayish mood between our two countries,” an allusion to the tension of recent years that culminated with last year’s war between Russia and its small neighbour, Georgia.

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