VIENNA, June 26. /TASS/. The conference on Russia’s withdrawal from the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) will be held in Vienna on June 29-30, with Russia being represented by a delegation from foreign and defense ministries led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov, a Russian diplomat told TASS on Monday.

After Russia’s law on the denunciation of the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe came into force on June 9, Russia issued relevant notifications to the Netherlands, as the treaty’s depository, and other member countries via their embassies in Moscow, as well as via delegations to the Vienna-based Joint Consultative Group on the CFE Treaty.

"Our Dutch colleagues promptly responded to our notification and, in line with the CFE Treaty’s provisions, informed that a conference would take place on Russia’s withdrawal from the treaty in Vienna on June 29-30. <…> The goal is to consider issues linked with the fact that Moscow will no longer take part in the treaty. High-ranking representatives from 28 countries from Europe, the United States, and Canada, who are signatories to the treaty, will take part. Our country will be represented by an inter-ministerial delegation of the Russian foreign and defense ministries that will be led by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov," said Konstantin Gavrilov, who leads the Russian delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control.

The conference will be chaired by Poland, which currently holds the rotating presidency.

Along with the withdrawal from the CFE Treaty, Russia will terminate the 1990 Budapest Agreement on Maximum Levels of Holdings of Conventional Arms and Equipment.

The law on the denunciation of the CFE Treaty was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 29 and came into force on June 9.

The CFE Treaty was signed in 1990 and adapted in 1997. 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 forced to declare a moratorium on the treaty’s implementation 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 been representing Russia’s interests in the Joint Consultative Group.