The US and Russia are in the throes of a huge disagreement over how to tackle the civil war in Syria. But in his speech at the Brandenburg gate in Berlin, President Barack Obama declared that he still wants to do business with Vladimir Putin on another security issue – the need to reduce the size of their nuclear arsenals.
One of the foreign policy achievements of Mr Obama’s first term was a treaty with Russia in allowing each side a maximum of 1,550 strategic warheads. Mr Obama has now announced that he wants to cut that by another third – leaving each country with just over 1,000 weapons.
US-Russia arms control is a subject of limited interest to many people these days. The cold war between Washington and Moscow is over. Military strategists are far more concerned by tensions between the US and China, especially on cyber espionage. Even with 1,000 weapons each, the US and Russia would still have the capability to blow the world up many times over. Still, the ambition spelt out by Mr Obama for more cuts in nuclear weapons does matter for several reasons.