MOSCOW, July 4 (RIA Novosti) - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Saturday he hopes for specific results of the forthcoming visit to Moscow by his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama on July 6-8.
"We are actively preparing for your visit to Moscow. We proceed [from the assumption] that specific results will be achieved at the summit, which should open new prospects of our ties' development for the benefit of Russian and U.S. nationals, for peace and progress," Medvedev's message to Obama on U.S. Independence Day said.
"Today Russia-U.S. interaction is acquiring particular significance to resolve the most important problems of modern times. Their number includes maintaining strategic stability, nuclear nonproliferation, fighting international terrorism, settling regional conflicts," the Russian leader said.
Medvedev said he hopes "by joint efforts, while acting in the spirit of mutual respect and trust, the required dynamics will be given to the Russian-American partnership, and it will be taken to a qualitatively new level meeting the interests of our states and the entire global community."
Kremlin aide Sergei Prikhodko confirmed Friday that the Russian and U.S. presidents would sign a key framework arms control agreement during Obama's visit.
"This will be a framework document setting out guidelines for further work on the draft treaty to replace the START 1 pact," he told reporters.
Prikhodko said Moscow hoped a new treaty regulating the number of long-range nuclear weapons would be signed early next year, but that its contents must not be sacrificed for the sake of a date. The current Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was signed before the Soviet Union's breakup in 1991, and expires in December this year.
He also said Medvedev and Obama will sign deals expanding bilateral military ties and on transit of military supplies via Russia to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
