Obama: U.S. and Russia must cooperate as equals

The United States and Russia must act as equals to address issues that only cooperation can solve, President Obama said today.

“I think that there has been a time over the last several years where Russian-U.S. relations were not as strong as they should be,” Obama said in an interview with Rossiya TV, a Russian news channel. “What I said coming in is that I wanted to press the reset button on relations between the United States and Russia.”

“We want to deal as equals,” Obama added.

Obama, who will embark on a trip to Russia tonight, said he hopes to make progress on nuclear non-proliferation during his discussions with President Medveded and Vladimir Putin,

“My goal is that both countries reduce their nuclear stockpiles in a way that doesn’t leave either country with an advantage, but reduces tensions and the expense of maintaining such high nuclear stockpiles when they’re not necessary for our defense and our deterrence,” Obama said.

Diplomats in both countries are working to negotiate a follow-up to the START treaty, a bilateral arms control agreement. Obama said he hopes to agree on a framework during this week’s summit with the goal of negotiating a final treaty by December.

“I think the issue of nuclear proliferation remains very important and we need to create a strong non-proliferation framework in the international community,” Obama said. A strong bilateral agreement with Russia to reduce nuclear arms would “give people a sense that we’re moving into a new era and we want to get beyond the Cold War.”