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)
See link to the 2007 joint declaration in an earlier post.

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:

“U.S. Special Envoy for Nuclear Nonproliferation, Ambassador Jackie Wolcott, 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 has the phrase “peaceful uses” underlined in this sentence:

“…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.