The U.S. and Russia are currently negotiating a successor to the START nuclear disarmament treaty. But continued American plans for a missile shield in Europe have proven to be a major stumbling block. President Obama's vision of a nuclear-free world is in danger.

There is good news on the disarmament front: U.S. President Barack Obama is fine-tuning a new nuclear strategy. As White House officials said last week during a meeting between Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates, he plans to reach a decision by April. The new strategy could include the scrapping of "thousands of nuclear weapons," and even a commitment by the United States not to develop any new nuclear weapons.

In addition, what may be the final round of Russian-American talks on the further reduction of strategic offensive weapons started on Tuesday in Geneva, Switzerland. The successor for the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) is "almost 100 percent complete," says a Moscow negotiator. "We have agreed on the number of launch systems and the warheads, as well as the inspection and destruction of the nuclear payloads. All problems have been solved."

So much optimism has rarely been seen in Moscow and Washington, particularly when it comes to the two countries' arsenals of nuclear weapons.

Unfortunately, though, the elation is not genuine. The idea that the world can become a planet free of nuclear weapons one day - as promised by President Obama in his visionary speech last year in Prague, Czech Republic -  remains a fallacy for the time being.

And the new treaty won't change that. Even if Russia and the U.S. finally put aside their decades of hostility during the Cold War and sign a treaty outlining the further reduction of their nuclear arsenals, their behind-the-scenes relationship is, once again, characterized by deep mistrust - perhaps even more so than during the administration of the abrasive former U.S. president, George W. Bush.