Obama to Meet with Gorabechev Again

American President Barack Obama, visiting Moscow for a summit on Russia-U.S. relations, will meet with former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on Tuesday. Gorbachev has been pushing for a new nuclear arms reduction treaty between the two nations.

Obama's scheduled visit with Gorbachev will bring an interesting twist to his trip to Russia where he is meeting with both President Dmitry Medvedev as well as former President and current Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. Particularly in the West, Gorbachev is considered to have brought an end to communism in Eastern Europe and a conclusion to the Cold War. It won't be the first time that Gorbachev and Obama will have met. In fact, Obama and Vice President Joe Biden met Gorbachev in March for an unscheduled meeting with the former Soviet leader was in Washington. At the time, they spoke about nuclear arsenal reductions. There has been pressure for a successor agreement to the START-1 treaty on nuclear arms which was ratified by Russia and the U.S. in 1991. The agreement, which expires in December, was signed by Gorbachev and then U.S. President Ronald Reagan. In a rare interview with Sky News Gorbachev had this to say about a nuclear arms deal: "If we don't get rid of nuclear weapons the 40 countries that are not members of the nuclear club will think that those in it are trying to control the world through nuclear weapons...I hope that Obama is that man who will be able to restart the nuclear disarmament process." Today Russia and the U.S. agreed to a "joint understanding" to negotiate an agreement that would cut back their respective nuclear arsenals. If successful, the agreement would lead to a decrease of nuclear weapons to under 1,700 each within seven years of a new treaty. However, getting a treaty in place will undoubtedly require take difficult negotiations, particularly with regards to the missile defense system that the U.S. intends on installing in Eastern Europe. Along with issues including the war in Georgia, NATO expansion, the missile defense system is a major sticking point in relations between the two nations. Gorbachev recently expressed hope in achieving better relations between Russia and the America. On the weekend he said that "US-Russia relations now are much worse than in my time but I think there are chances of improving and renewing them." The former Soviet leader also alluded to the impact of the changed approaches to relations of Obama and Medvedev. "We have a new generation of people on both sides and they are ambitious enough to take on this responsibility," he said. The rhetoric from both sides indicates that the commitment to improve relations is shared by the two nations' Presidents. Today Medvedev said that Russia "would like to reach a level of co-operation with the United States that would really be worthy of the 21st Century, and which would ensure international peace and security." Obama declared that both countries were "committed to leaving behind the suspicion and the rivalry of the past."