Dialogue 09/05/23 Obama seeks new ties with Russia

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Intro:

The United States and Russia on Wednesday concluded their first round of talks on a new arms reduction treaty. The talks aim at replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty or START，the cold war legacy which will expire in December. Russia's war with the neighboring Georgia as well as former US president George W Bush's plan to base a missile defense program in central Europe，have strained relations between Moscow and Washington.

The Russians attach strings to the negotiation by urging the US to put this missile shield program on the table. However，a more urgent task for them at this moment is to set aside their antagonism and get united to persuade Iran to give up its ambitious nuclear program as Israel was brought to the edge of the seat when Iran test-fired a mediu-range missile on Wednesday that can hit Israel，the US M.East military bases and some parts of Europe.

Joining us now in the Beijing Studio here are Professor Zhang Xingang from HK，Mr.Brandon Blackburn Dwyer from US but I will be talking to a Russian professor of international relations Mr.Alexander Lukin and a Brussels-based British expert of EU-Russian relations.