1.   But the treaty faces stiff opposition in the Senate, where critics have said its provisions might threaten the safety and reliability of U.S. nuclear stockpiles.

2.   China has complained about the American plans to build missile defenses and warned it would build up its nuclear stockpile in response.

3.   Congress has previously taken the position that India should not sign the treaty until the major nuclear powers agree to take definite steps to disarm their own nuclear stockpiles.

4.   If the United States has an interest in reducing nuclear stockpiles, however, it is.

5.   It appealed to all major nuclear powers to drastically reduce their nuclear stockpiles, and to abandon a policy of nuclear deterrence.

6.   It also highlighted a few bright spots, including the cooperation by the countries that comprised the former Soviet Union in reducing their nuclear stockpile.

7.   More than that, Russia desperately needs the money it now spends on maintaining a nuclear stockpile to modernize the smaller, more flexible force it wants to build.

8.   Reducing nuclear stockpiles is no longer a utopian position.

9.   Russian officials insist that supercomputers are needed to maintain the reliability of their nuclear stockpile now that Moscow has agreed to a ban on nuclear tests.

10.   That means finishing the business of securing Russian nuclear stockpiles.