US President Barack Obama has telephoned his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev to acknowledge the substantial progress that the two countries have made in completing negotiations on bilateral issues.During their meeting in Washington on June 24, Obama and Medvedev set September 30 as a deadline for Russian and American negotiators to resolve outstanding bilateral issues in connection with Russian efforts to join the WTO.By passing major pieces of legislation, including major amendments to laws which govern the effective protection of intellectual property rights, the Russian government has taken and continues to take significant steps to meet bilateral commitments and to accelerating multilateral negotiations on Russia's WTO accession.The two presidents also discussed their mutual interest seeing their respective legislative bodies approve the New START treaty before the end of the year, their continued concern for Iran's defiance of its international obligations, and their shared support for the upcoming referendum in Sudan.