US and Russian negotiators resumed talks in Geneva on cutting their nuclear arsenals today, in their last scheduled meeting before a summit between their presidents next month.
The two sides continued their third formal round of negotiations on replacing the Cold War era Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) at the US mission in the Swiss city, diplomats said.
The talks have been shrouded in secrecy, but the United States yesterday pointed to progress in the negotiations.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly recalled that both US President Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, who meet early next month in Moscow, want "significant reductions" in their nuclear weapons arsenals.
"That's what each... Country is working towards. I think that we've made progress in the talks that we've... Had so far," Kelly told reporters in Washington without elaborating.
The attempt to strike a new deal to succeed the 1991 START treaty, which expires on December 5, is regarded as a key foundation in rebuilding US-Russian relations that deteriorated in the final stages of President George W Bush's administration.
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Russia has welcomed the talks as "constructive".
Medvedev reiterated last week that further nuclear arms reductions could only come about if Washington addressed Moscow's "concerns" about deployment of the US missile defence shield in ex-Soviet states in eastern Europe.