NATO countries suspend participation in Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe after Russiaʼs withdrawal

NATO member countries suspend participation in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. This is a response to Russiaʼs withdrawal from there.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Britain and the press service of NATO write about it.

London criticized Russiaʼs decision to withdraw from the Treaty, and Foreign Minister James Cleverly called it Russiaʼs effort to undermine strategic stability and the Euro-Atlantic security architecture.

"Russiaʼs unilateral withdrawal undermines the reciprocity that underlies the CSTO. This is a destabilizing step for the integrity of the Treaty, and continued implementation of the Treaty means that we believe the Treaty continues to function as intended. That is clearly not the case,” added Cleverley.

NATO wrote that the member states of the Alliance intend to suspend the Treaty for as long as necessary. The decision was supported by all NATO members.

• The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe was signed on November 19, 1990 in Paris by 16 NATO countries (Belgium, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Iceland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United States, Turkey and France) and six states of the Warsaw Pact (Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania, USSR and Czechoslovakia) and entered into force on November 9, 1992. The agreement established quotas on the amount of military equipment that the signatory countries could have.
• The treaty limited the number of weapons and military equipment for the participating countries. We are talking about tanks, armored combat vehicles, artillery, attack helicopters, combat aircraft.
• Russia suspended its participation in this treaty in November 2007, and now has finally withdrawn from it.