German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged the Russian leadership Wednesday to grasp the opportunity for progress in nuclear arms issues offered by the new US administration of President Barack Obama, according to dpa. Steinmeier, on the final day of a two-day visit to Moscow, urged a new beginning in security issues and pressed Russia to reach agreement with the US on further steps towards nuclear disarmament. His remarks came after talks with President Dmitry Medvedev and come as Moscow is getting ready for the visit by Obama in July, amid the moves now underway by the two nuclear superpowers to reach an agreement to extend their strategic arms reduction treaty START. "I hope that the negotiations will quickly come to a result," the German minister said. The summit between Medvedev and Obama could be the "touchstone" as to whether the year 2009 can turn out to be the "year of a new dawn" in security questions. Steinmeier noted the urgency of nuclear issues, saying that the cases of "Iran and North Korea make it clear that, internationally, we are under pressure." Medvedev, for his part, said that, like Obama, he is fundamentally prepared for a complete abstention from the use of nuclear weapons. The Russian presdient also praised the "always constructive and open stance of Germany" in security questions. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appeared to echo the sentiment when he told reporters later that security could be guaranteed without nuclear weapons. "Certainly," he said. "What do we need nuclear weapons for?" But he warned that a total abstention could go ahead only if all countries that had the weapons agreed to take part. "If those who invented the atom bomb, and used it, are prepared to do away with atom bombs, we would welcome this," he said. In related developments, the Russian military said Wednesday that a new agreement between Moscow and Washington could see the two sides agreeing to reduce their nuclear warhead arsenals to 1,500 each. The Russia-US talks on an extension of the START treaty, which expires at the end of this year, come after Moscow at the end of 2007 had suspended its participation in the negotiations, in protest against the US plans for a new missile defence system in Eastern Europe. Later on, in a speech before the Russian Academy of Sciences, Steinmeier called on Russia's leadership to take up Obama's offer for closer cooperation. "The outstretched hand of the American president should be courageously grasped," he said. "Hesitating or tactical manoeuvring could again quickly closed the window of opportunity." Steinmeier in his policy speech also touched on the issue of the Russia-Georgia conflict and called on Moscow to show a "constructive stance" in the debate over an international presence in Georgia. He also touched on the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute and said Russia The leader of Germany's Social Democrats had arrived Tuesday evening in Moscow for a two-day visit, with talks also set with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Steinmeier and Putin were due later Wednesday to visit a future hospital for children with cancer which is being built with German aid. In a German-Russian business development, the German company SPX Cooling Technologies was awarded a contract to build two new cooling towers for the Novovoronesh nuclear power plant, which, at 52 years, is the oldest atomic plant in Russia, the Interfax agency reported.
