Obama: New U.S.-Russia nuclear treaty
Posted: Sunday, November 15, 2009 3:07 AM by Chuck Todd
From NBC's Chuck Todd
SINGAPORE -- Pres. Obama and Russian Pres. Medvedev on Sunday afternoon met one-on-one for the fourth time this year. The two leaders are participating in the APEC conference. The urgency for another one-on-one meeting comes as the two countries scramble to meet an end-of-the-year deadline to agree to a new START treaty on reducing each country's nuclear arsenal.
Mr. Obama said he's still confident that a new treaty can get done by the end of year, though, keep in mind agreeing to a treaty and getting it through the Senate are two different things.
According to senior officials, the two were to spend a lion's share of their time together discussing START. However, the president, after the meeting told reporters that they did talk about Iran and Afghanistan as well.
On Iran and the stalled P5+1 talks regarding the country's nuclear fuel issues, the president said,"We're now running out of time." And for the first time, the president publicly admitted that the Iranians have basically rejected the deal that was on the table. Previously, the administration had been hesitant to criticize the Iranians publicly for their stalled answer to the proposal involving inspections and their nuclear fuel issue. He added that the two leaders talked about how they could create urgency with the Iranians.
Interestingly, at the end of his remarks, the president said he believed "the reset button has worked," a reference to a prop Sec/State Clinton used in her first meeting with her Russian counterpart this spring. At the time, many had a little fun at the U.S.'s expense because the word "reset" was mis-translated on the button-prop the Secretary used.
The president has met privately with Medvedev four times -- more than any other world leader since taking office. The two held bilaterals in London in April at the G20, in New York in September at the opening of the UN General Assembly and, of course, in Moscow last July.
