- It seems that the Reset Button is going to work! – Mark Spenser, an oilman from Texas called us the next day after Russian president Dmitriy Medvedev met with the American president Barack Obama on September 23 in New York. – First I was thinking that this reset deal was just a nice slogan for the mass media, but now I can see that two leaders really want to reassess the Russian-American relationship in our changing world.

I agree with Mark. The new meeting in New York showed the whole world that the two leaders started to develop a very strong relationship. It doesn’t look like the Putin-Bush dialogue. You can feel the readiness to work together and achieve tangible results. President Obama called it an “excellent working relationship” and praised Dmitriy Medvedev for that.

The success of the meeting in New York was  predetermined a week before, when Obama announced that the United States was dropping plans to base a missile defense shield system in Poland and the Czech Republic. There is no doubt that Russia was pleased with what the White House did.  Obama has denied that his decision to abandon a plan for a U.S. missile defense shield in Eastern Europe was related to the efforts to get more help from Moscow on Iran. Iran was one of the main topics the two presidents discussed in New York. And, of course, it is not an easy one. The United States and Russia previously disagreed over Iran - over the possible steps the U.N. Security Council may take, including imposing sanctions - to push Tehran to comply with U.N. demands concerning its nuclear program. During the meeting in New York, the Russian President sent a message to his American colleague that he could support sanctions against Iran for its attempts to develop nuclear weapons.

“Russia’s position is clear: sanctions rarely lead to productive results, but in some cases sanctions are inevitable,” Medvedev said in a joint appearance with Obama after their talks.

He opened the door to sanctions, indicating a more unified approach to the issue.

President Obama also said that he and Mr. Medvedev believe they can have an agreement before January to reduce their countries’ nuclear arsenals.

Dmitriy Medvedev hailed the continuously strengthening cooperation between Russia and the United States when meeting with the visiting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton outside Moscow on October 13, 2009.

“Our cooperation with the new U.S. administration is reaching a high level,” said Medvedev. “Bilateral relations have also been given an impetus of late,” he said.

The recent G20 summit in Pittsburgh and the plenary session of the United Nations General Assembly, said Medvedev, showed a common desire of Russia and the United States to seek solutions to “the most important and difficult” problems.

Secretary Clinton said at the Moscow meeting that the United States is looking forward to expanding its strategic ties with Russia.

With that, let the “reset” continue!