Obama to Visit Russia/Meetings with Medvedev and Putin

Russia has made several offers to disarm if the US follow suit over the past decade and I hope the US will finally concede to this offer.

Peace is good and arm raises are way to costly and counter productive.

Further if we ever want countries like Iran to abstain from ABC weapons then the ABC super powers better lead the way and disarm them self.

China, India, Pakistan and others will then be forced to follow suit as well.

Well, you may be right, however he will never convince Russia nor China or my self that a missile defence program is not amend at them like putting a loaded gun to some once head and saying it is for self defence only and amend at potential terrorist.

We all know that the Missile defence shild can not work nor has it ever been accurate or successful in any previous test. It is more of a threat.

If the US go ahead with this idea they should not be surprised if China and Russia will do the same in Venezuela, Cuba, and elsewhere and say well, It is just our missile defence and not pointed at Europe nor North America.

The Russian are not interested in another arm race and the US should not push their luck to far though, because they will end up with another arm race the way they are going about it.

The difference this time around is that China and Russia have the upper hand and the US is the one bankrupted and will not be able to keep up with Russia nor with China. 

I doubt it very much that the US would ever give up, completely, on its nuclear weapons.  During this visit, if I read it right, some disarmament is on the table and obviously the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty.

One of Obama's major points will be to convince Russia  that locating missile defence in Eastern Europe is not directed at Russia.

There will probably be some concession to get permission for Military Transit.  The results of this will be interesting to follow in the next few days.  Watch for hidden signals between the lines when they have a joint press conference.

It will be a delicate issue to tackle.  There will definitely be some arm wrestling by both Medvedev and Putin to put this idea to rest. 

With the misbehaviour by North Korea recently, President Obama is under tremendous pressure at home to continue with the Missile Defence Program.  It will take courage to go against that trend.

You can not base international politics and defence systems on a renegade such as North Korea. 

Putting Missiles in Europe will not help defend against North Korea either.

North Korea is an International problem and has to be dealt with through the UN alone.

Or let China take them over and make it a province of China... Well, I doubt the Chinese want them though.

But, yes you are correct it will be a delicate issue to tackle in deed.

Needless to say, the Press Conference at the conclusion of meetings with both Putin and Medvedev will be interesting :)

we need our missile defense system and it should be made at full speed, we don't know what the future will hold, like a rogue state getting its hands on nuke technology from the likes of N. Korea. I am in favor of reducing our stockpile of nukes because some are just too old to be of any use. Relationship with Russia will improve under Obama because they know he voted against the war in Iraq.

Yes one can only hope this will start to normalize relations.  I still have a concern with Russia's sincerity and Putin's intentions.  Although I'm sure outside appearances will  be all mushy, time will tell where this relationship goes.  There are many conflicting interests, but Russia seems to be holding the Ace in the hole at this point.