US president and Russian counterpart in London for G20 summit discuss reducing stockpiles of nuclear weapons
Dmitry Medvedev and Barack Obama meet ahead of the G20 summit in London to discuss nuclear disarmament. Photograph: Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP
Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev have begun talks at the US embassy residence in Regent's Park, central London, aimed at achieving significant nuclear disarmament and reshaping relations between their two countries.
The Winfield House talks were due to end at about 1pm and are expected to produce two documents, Russian officials said.
One will set new parameters for the troubled US-Russia relationship. The other will announce the resumption of talks on nuclear disarmament aimed at reaching a deal by the time the strategic arms reduction treaty (Start) expires on December 5.
It is not yet clear whether there will be any figures in the nuclear document specifying target figures for the nuclear stockpiles. They could be 1,500 warheads each, down from the 2,200 deployed weapons currently permitted.
The Russian camp says there may be figures in the document. The Americans have played down such suggestions. Also possible is a date for a visit by Obama to Moscow this summer to negotiate a new nuclear treaty.
Speaking about the meeting at a joint press conference this morning with Gordon Brown, Obama said US-Russian relations had been drifting for years, and that addressing proliferation was a "good place to start" to reinvigorate them.
He said the nuclear non-proliferation treaty, due for renewal next year, was "threadbare" and that the existing nuclear powers would be in a much better position to tell non-nuclear countries not to develop weapons if they pursued deep cuts in their stockpiles.
The spectre of nuclear weapons in the hands of terrorists, he said, "continues to be the greatest threat against humanity".
