The United States and Russia have reached a deal to reopen talks about nuclear warheads, in the first major arms discussions since 1997. The Associated Press reported that President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will announce the talks on Wednesday during their first meeting. The leaders planned to discuss a possible replacement of the expiring 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, which limited the world's two largest nuclear arsenals to between 1,700 and 2,200 warheads. That agreement, known as START, expires Dec. 5. Obama's administration has reached out to Russia during its first two months in power, trying to repair a rift that emerged over the United States' plan to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe that Moscow vehemently opposes. Obama called a new arms control treaty push "a good place to start" in rebuilding a partnership with Russia. Obama told reporters at a news conference in London that he has “no interest in papering over,” the tensions that exist between Washington and Moscow, but also said the two countries share many interests, including reducing the threat of terrorism and stabilizing the world economy. “Both sides of the Atlantic understand that, as much as the constant cloud of nuclear warfare has receded, that the presence of these deadly weapons continues to be the gravest threat to humanity,” Obama said.
