“START agreement – first step to disarmament”

Laurence Korb, senior fellow at the Centre for American Progress discusses Russia-US relations.

After agreeing to key nuclear weapons cuts, President Medvedev praised Barack Obama for “sensibly” scrapping immediate missile shield plans in Eastern Europe.

He said that a new START agreement between the two countries would be signed in time, and that it would be an example for world disarmament.

Another key issue that Medvedev brought up in his speech was calling for a nuclear-free zone in the Middle East.

“The implicit message of that is ‘if we want Iran not to get nuclear weapons, then Israel should get rid of its own.’ Because Israel has never admitted that it is a nuclear power, but everybody knows that it has weapons,” Korb commented.