Yesterday, the Department of State and the Russian MID released a statement titled “*One Year of _Progress_ Following the Joint Declaration on Nuclear Energy and Nonproliferation*.” (“MID text”:http://www.mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/e78a48070f128a7b43256999005bcbb3/8bcdc2f2210a1b74c325747c00325247?OpenDocument)
See link to the 2007 joint declaration in an “earlier post”:http://www.totalwonkerr.net/1614/usg-sochi-non-paper.
Progress indeed. Timing to release the statement before the long holiday weekend seems to speak volumes. (Ok, I know, it’s G8 time.) But this is still nice:
bq. “U.S. Special Envoy for Nuclear Nonproliferation, Ambassador “Jackie Wolcott”:http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/biog/27684.htm, and Russian Ambassador Grigory Berdennikov are working in tandem, and in partnership with others, to advance the objectives of the Joint Declaration.”
Oh yeah, I should also note that the “State version”:http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2008/07/106502.htm has the phrase *”peaceful uses”* underlined in this sentence:
bq. “…U.S. and Russia are prepared to cooperate, together with others, in making the benefits of *peaceful uses* of nuclear energy available to a wide range of interested states, and developing countries in particular.”
_I wonder what “interested states” they have in mind._