President Obama has delivered his first State of the Union address which received extensive coverage worldwide.
Naturally, most of the points made focused on domestic problems, first of all, measures to steer the country out of the financial and economic crunch.
Millions beyond the United States were interested to know how the 44th president will choose to act in foreign policy. Even though President Obama suggested nothing new, his foreign policy agenda meets the overall interests of maintaining peace and stability on the planet.
The US will step up effort to fight terrorism, which is a healthy policy as long as it is not used as a pretext to meddle in the domestic affairs of other countries. Also a healthy move is President Obama's plan to withdraw troops from Iraq this year and from Afghanistan in 2011. Undoubtedly, the US president's commitment to non-proliferation and a nuclear-free world deserves support too. Encouraging is his effort to seek a non-nuclear status for Iran and North Korea as long as he stays committed to diplomacy.
Apparently, President Obama views the signing of a new legally binding strategic arms reduction deal with Russia as the most important achievement of the year 2009. The new treaty will provide for the most drastic reductions in the past two decades. On the day of his State of the Union address the US president managed to make time to contact President Medvedev by phone to discuss signing the new arms deal shortly.
In a word, Russia and the US pursue a variety of common targets in foreign policy which they can easily meet on the basis of equal and mutually beneficial cooperation.
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