07-07-09 “Nuclear threat is a common responsibility”

Barack Obama has called on Moscow to share the responsibility of resisting the nuclear ambitions of Iran and North Korea.He pointed out that Russia and the United States,possessing the biggest nuclear arsenals in the world,have an obligation to put nuclear proliferation to an end in order to live in a nuclear-free world in the future.Obama values highly the agreement he and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reached in order to sign a new strategic arms reduction treaty by the end of 2009.The American president said that eliminating weapons of mass destruction is “the core nuclear challenge in the 21st century.” He added that there is no place for the illusion that “we can protect ourselves by picking and choosing which nations” can have nuclear weapons.Obama and Medvedev agreed to cut down American and Russian nuclear arsenals by one-third within the framework of the future arms reduction treaty to be signed by the end of this year.Earlier on Tuesday,President Obama met with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.The US leader promised to take Russia’s opinion about the status of the post-Soviet space into account,as well as to consider Russia’s concerns on missile defense