PARIS — US President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday sent messages of support to a high-profile group seeking to rid the world of nuclear weapons.
Hundreds of former leaders, ex-ministers, experts and US actor Michael Douglas took part in a meeting in Paris of the "Global Zero" campaign launched last year to press for the gradual elimination of the world's nuclear arsenals.
"A world without nuclear weapons. As president, this is one of my highest priorities," Obama said in the message to the gathering.
Recalling his commitment toward disarmament outlined in a key speech in Prague last year, Obama noted that United States and Russia were completing negotiations on a new START nuclear reduction treaty.
US and Russian negotiators began their latest round of talks on the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) on Monday in Geneva.
"When people of passion and goodwill refuse to accept the world as it is, when we see the world as it might become, then great change is inevitable," said Obama.
In his message, Medvedev told the gathering that "our common task consists in undertaking everything to make deadly weapons of mass destruction a thing of the past."
The Russian president said the START negotiations could yield a "meaningful and viable document that will give an additional impetus to the disarmament process."
Delegates at the Global Zero conference were to agree on a series of recommendations to achieve a nuclear-free world at the end of their gathering on Thursday.
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