The U.S. and Russia reached a breakthrough agreement Wednesday for a historic treaty to reduce the nuclear arsenals of the former Cold War rivals, reports the Associated Press, calling the treaty "the most significant pact in a generation and an important milestone in the decades-long quest to lower the risk of global nuclear war." 

Robert S. Norris of the Ploughshares-funded Natural Resources Defense Council [2], warned, however, that  Senate ratification would not be easy. "Hard negotiations with the Russians will now be followed by hard negotiations with Republican senators to achieve ratification."  Ambassador Richard Burt [3], who negotiated the original strategic arms reduction treaty with the Soviet Union, said that "this agreement will set the stage for further cuts in U.S. and Russian arsenals and multilateral negotiations for reductions by all nuclear weapons countries." Ambassador Burt is a leader in the G [4]lobal Zero campaign, which is supported by Ploughshares Fund.