COPENHAGEN — President Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev failed to reach an agreement on a new nuclear-arms control accord during talks on the sidelines of the Copenhagen climate summit Friday.
The 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) expired Dec. 5 and an Obama administration official had called the bilateral meeting a last-ditch effort to reach a deal by the end of the year.
Following their meeting Obama told reporters the parties were making “excellent progress” and said the two nations with the biggest nuclear-arms stockpiles were “quite close to an agreement”.
Medvedev said the Russian and U.S. positions on the talks were “very close” but some technical details required further work.
The two sides will continue working on an agreement into January.