VIENNA, May 12. /TASS/. The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) has completely outlived itself and any further participation in it would not correspond to Russia's national interests, Konstantin Gavrilov, head of the Russian delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, told TASS on Friday.
"The treaty has become entirely obsolete and participating in it any further would not correspond to the national interests of our country," the diplomat said.
He noted that the CFE Treaty had played a positive role in ensuring European security in the final stages of the Cold War, but after the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact its parameters needed to be updated. However, the US and other NATO countries "under contrived pretexts" refused to ratify the 1999 amended version.
The head of the delegation added that Russia had repeatedly endeavored to update the control regime over conventional arms in Europe but its position "was not heard." "Finland and Sweden’s applications for NATO membership, as well as Helsinki’s subsequent accession to the alliance, became the last straw," he asserted.
"Under these circumstances, Russian President Vladimir Putin made a decision to launch the process of denouncing the CFE," Gavrilov explained.
The CFE Treaty was signed in 1990 and adapted in 1999. However, NATO countries did not ratify the adapted version of the CFE and have continued to adhere to the 1990 provisions, based on the conventional arms balance between NATO and the Warsaw Pact. As a result, Russia was compelled to declare a moratorium on implementing the terms of the treaty in 2007.
On March 11, 2015, Russia suspended its participation in meetings of the Joint Consultative Group on the CFE Treaty, completing the process of suspending its membership in the CFE while remaining a purely de jure party to the treaty. Since then, Belarus has represented Russia’s interests in the Joint Consultative Group.