Russia withdraws from European military control treaty

Moscow has just announced a "complete" end to all activities under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE).

The Russian Foreign Ministry announced on the night of March 10: “The Russian Federation has decided to stop participating in the discussion sessions (of the CFE – NV) from March 11, 2015. Therefore, Russia also ended all activities under the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE)”. Russia also assigned Belarus to represent Russia’s interests in the group discussion sessions.

Russian tanks parade at Red Square (Photo: Reuters)

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, this move does not mean that Moscow has ended all dialogue on the control of conventional armed forces in Europe. However, dialogue channels will only be resumed once the agreement meets the interests of both Europe and Russia.

The CFE Treaty was originally signed by 16 NATO member states and six Warsaw Pact members in 1990. It sets “ceilings” on the number of conventional weapons, tanks, armored vehicles, artillery, helicopters and fighter aircraft that each country is allowed to have. For example, according to the Treaty’s terms, a country cannot have more than 16,500 tanks or 27,300 armored vehicles in service.

Russia has repeatedly accused this Treaty of being "unequal", because while the West forces Russia to strictly control its military activities, NATO has continuously expanded to the East, approaching Russian territory. By 2007, Russia had announced to stop dialogue within the framework of CFE.

According to PLO