MINSK, May 6. /TASS/. The Belarusian Council of the Republic of the National Assembly (upper house of parliament) has approved a bill on the suspension of the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, a TASS correspondent reports.

The document was adopted on April 17 in one reading by the House of Representatives. Now it will be submitted to the president of the country for signing.

In early April, the press service of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reported that the head of state had given his consent to introduce the draft law on the suspension of the CFE Treaty, prepared by the Council of Ministers, which Minsk ratified in 1992. The press service of the Belarusian leader noted that Minsk fully fulfills its obligations under the treaty. It also recalled that the Czech Republic in 2022 and Poland in 2023 decided not to honor their obligations under the CFE Treaty with regard to Belarus, so Minsk did the same with respect to these countries in October 2023 as a retaliatory measure. In addition, in November 2023, NATO countries announced their intention to indefinitely suspend their participation in the CFE Treaty. According to Minsk, this essentially means the termination of the treaty.

The presidential press service noted that the draft law provides for the suspension of the CFE Treaty, but does not mean Belarus' withdrawal from it and the cessation of internal procedures related to its implementation in the armed forces. The Belarusian Defense Ministry stated that Minsk was not planning to increase the number of military equipment and weapons in the near future due to the suspension of the treaty.

The CFE Treaty provides for limits on aggregate levels of conventional armaments and equipment, as well as mechanisms for verifying compliance with commitments, including information exchange and inspections. It was signed in 1990 and adapted in 1997. NATO countries did not ratify the adapted version of the document, continuing to adhere to the 1990 provisions, which contained conventional arms norms based on the balance between the alliance and the disbanded Warsaw Pact. For that reason, Russia was forced to declare a moratorium on the implementation of the agreement’s terms in 2007 and suspended its membership in the treaty in March 2015. On May 29, 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on denouncing the CFE Treaty, which came into force on June 9. Moscow has repeatedly stated that the blame for the possible termination of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe will fall on the United States and its allies, who chose the confrontation path.