US President Barack Obama on Thursday declared he had succeeded in "resetting" the US-Russia relationship, which he said had reached its lowest point since the Cold War at the end of George W. Bush's term in office.

Obama also reaffirmed his commitment to Russia's entry into the World Trade Organisation, saying: "Russia belongs in the WTO... that's good for Russia, it's good for America and it's good for the world economy."

Obama was speaking to reporters in the East Room of the White House following meetings with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

Medvedev, meanwhile, agreed to allow a resumption of US poultry exports to his country which Russia had banned earlier this year, claiming that a chemical used in the US violated its food safety rules.

But despite the bonhomie between the two leaders, who have met seven times since Obama took office, both Obama and Medvedev acknowledged that they had differences over certain issues, including Georgia.

“Our two countries continue to disagree on certain issues, such as Georgia,” Obama said, adding that he and Medvedev had addressed these issues candidly.

Obama said by moving forward on areas on which the US and Russia were in agreement, "we have succeeded in resetting our relationship, which benefits regional and global security."

Describing his discussions with the Russian leader as excellent, Obama said this would not have been possible around the time he had assumed office. Relations between the two countries deteriorated after the Russian invasion of Georgia in 2008.

“Our two countries are more secure and the world is safer when the United States and Russia get on well together,” Obama said.

In this vein, both Obama and Medvedev said their goal was to ensure quick ratification of the new arms reduction START treaty in Washington and Moscow.

On April 8, Obama and Medvedev signed the treaty in Prague. The New START Treaty reduces limits on the US and Russian deployed strategic warheads by approximately one-third.

After speaking to reporters in the East Room of the White House, Obama and Medvedev took a short walk to the US Chamber of Commerce to meet with US and Russian business leaders.

Obama said his administration was committed not just to resetting the relationship with Russia but broadening it as well.

"The US-Russia relationship has to be more than just about security and arms control," he said. As a result, the discussions were focused on the economy, and expanding trade and commerce.

The US and Russian presidents said they had resolved a majority of the obstacles in the path to Russia's entry into the WTO. They have instructed their negotiators to work as quickly as possible to wrap up what Obama said were "difficult issues" that will require "some significant work," but Medvedev described as "minor problems."

“A lot of the technical issues, the resolution of those technical issues... may be in the hands of the Russian government,” Obama said.

There "may be certain international standards that require modifications in Russian law," he said, adding, "we are going to do everything we can to get this done as quickly as possible."

Medvedev said the negotiators had been instructed to work as fast as possible, and added that he hoped negotiations would be wrapped up by the end of September.

Later, speaking at the US Chamber of Commerce, Medvedev said his administration was "convinced that the US-Russia economic potential is great."

Russia has agreed to buy 50 Boeing 737 aircraft worth $4 billion that Obama said would add up to 44,000 new jobs in the US.

The two leaders also discussed recent international developments, including the fresh round of UN sanctions on Iran, tension on the Korean Peninsula and unrest in Kyrgyzstan.

The two sides released 11 joint statements at the end of their meetings. These covered promotion and implementation of open government; Kyrgyzstan; energy efficiency; strategic stability; counterterrorism cooperation; inter-country adoption; Afghanistan; people-to-people connections; strategic partnership in innovation; Russia’s accession to the WTO; US-Russia presidential commission.

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Washington, June 25
India today joined as an observer in the ambitious astronomical observatory, Thirty Metre Telescope (TMT), in Hawaii, which will help in unravelling mysteries of black hole, origin of galaxies and formation of planets among others.

The status of an observer is first step by India in becoming a full partner in TMT, which will be fully operational in 2018 and will be world’s most advanced astronomical observatory, the statement from Project said.

Minister of Science and Technology Prithviraj Chavan announced the decision to join the project here, a statement from the Project which is scheduled to begin scientific operations in 2018 on Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

“The government and people of India recognise the importance of embarking on world-class, international science collaborations,” the statement quoted T Ramasami, Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology as saying during the ceremony here.

The telescope will have a 30-metre segmented mirror which uses diffraction of light and focuses in much sharper way than smaller telescopes.

Such a large size of aperture will help it collecting more light thus generating much clearer and sharper images of fainter objects, which may not be possible by present day scopes, the statement said.

The images generated by the telescope will be 12 times sharper than the Hubble Space Telescope. The images will be clearer than previous telescopes by a factor of 10 to 100 depending on the observation.

A look at these images will help the scientists to understand several key aspects of universe including the black hole formation, formation of galaxies, starting of the Universe and formation of first heavy elements in it.

This telescope has adaptive optics to correct for the blurring effect of Earth’s atmosphere, it said. — PTI