They also sent a jointly signed letter to Barack Obama and his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, who were about to meet for the first time, urging them to make a commitment to eliminate nuclear weapons and start making further big cuts in their own arsenals.

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Exxon Mobil and Russia's Rosneft in April signed a landmark deal to jointly develop the Arctic's rich untapped reserves.

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In 1999 Chiron signed an agreement with Aventis to jointly develop and fund the technique.

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In 2008 it signed a deal with PdVSA to jointly study a block in the Orinoco heavy crude belt, which the government in Caracas says holds the largest hydrocarbon reserves in the world.

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Shortly after, First Solar signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop the first phase of the project with China Guangdong Nuclear Solar Energy Development, which was founded the month after First Solar was awarded the Ordos project.

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In 2008, Phenomix scrapped plans to go public, and signed a deal with Forest Laboratories to jointly develop and sell its oral diabetes drug, already in late stage clinical trials.

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The split ends a decades-long partnership that appeared to unravel after Lilly signed a deal earlier this year with Boehringer Ingelheim to jointly develop and sell several diabetes compounds that are in mid- and late-stage development, including a Boehringer oral diabetes agent known as linagliptin.

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Indeed, the very week the Non-Aggression Pact was signed, senior British and French military delegations were in Moscow discussing the details of military action to be taken jointly against Nazi aggression.

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