MINSK, November 8. /TASS/. NATO’s move to suspend the operation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) has fully destroyed the region’s conventional arms control system, Valery Revenko, head of the Belarusian Defense Ministry’s Department for International Defense Cooperation, said.

"NATO member states suspend participation in the CFE Treaty. No alternative to the Treaty has been created.The consequences of these actions have yet to be assessed but it is already clear that the conventional arms control system in Europe has been completely destroyed," he wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Revenko stressed that "Belarus has fully complied with the provisions of the CFET." "During COVID-19, it suspended verification activities only after other states had done so, and since June 2022, Belarus has been ready to host inspections again. There has been a continuous exchange of information under the Treaty," he added.

On November 7, NATO member states announced plans to suspend the operation of the CFE Treaty "for as long as necessary" following Russia’s withdrawal from the accord.

The CFE Treaty was signed in 1990 and amended in 1997. However, NATO countries never ratified the amended version of the document and continued to adhere to the outdated 1990 provisions based on the conventional arms balance between NATO and the now non-existent Warsaw Pact.

On May 29, 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law denouncing the Treaty that came into force on June 9. Moscow has repeatedly said that the US and its allies will be to blame for the treaty’s demise as they have taken the path to confrontation.