MOSCOW - US PRESIDENT Barack Obama faces one of the toughest diplomatic challenges of his young presidency next week as he seeks to persuade a reluctant Russia to salvage an expiring nuclear arms treaty.
A HUGE OBSTACLE
IN APRIL, Mr Obama and Mr Medvedev agreed to work towards a successor treaty by December and pledged that it would include deep cuts in the US and Russian strategic arsenals.
But a huge obstacle stands in the way - a dispute over a controversial US missile shield in eastern Europe which was strongly backed by Mr Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, despite Russian objections.
Clinching a deal on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (Start), a landmark Cold War-era disarmament agreement that runs out on December 5, would indicate that Mr Obama's plan to 'reset' strained ties with Russia has borne fruit.
It would also have far-reaching implications for global security and could boost Washington's hand in dealing with Iran and North Korea, experts say.
Mr Obama, who arrives in Moscow on Monday, is expected to hold more than four hours of talks with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.
A central topic of their discussions will be the future of Start, which limits the number of deployed strategic warheads on both sides to 6,000 and the number of warhead delivery vehicles to 1,600.
Obtaining a new agreement would advance Mr Obama's stated goal of achieving a world without nuclear weapons, said Mr James Goodby, a retired US diplomat who took part in the original US-Soviet Start negotiations.
'Because Russia and the United States together possess about 90 per cent of the world's nuclear weapons, it is important that they show leadership in reducing their own nuclear arsenals,' Mr Goodby said.
Moreover, close US-Russian cooperation would also make it harder for Iran and North Korea to pursue their nuclear programmes, he added.
'I think that will have a profound effect on the negotiating environment with those two countries,' said Mr Goodby, who is now an expert at the Hoover Institution in California. -- AFP
