VILNIUS, April 16. /TASS/. The Saeima (Latvian parliament) has adopted in the final reading a bill on the country’s withdrawal from the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, also known as the Ottawa Convention, the Delfi news outlet reported.

According to its information, the decision was supported by 68 lawmakers and opposed by 14. The Latvian parliament consists of one hundred lawmakers.

On March 25, the Latvian Cabinet of Ministers supported the country’s withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention. The Foreign Ministry then said that the country will drop the convention simultaneously with Lithuania, Poland and Estonia.

On March 18, the defense ministers of Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Estonia jointly recommended that their countries withdraw from the Ottawa Convention, arguing that "military threats to the NATO member states bordering Russia and Belarus have increased significantly."

The Ottawa Convention entered into force in 1999, when 164 states, including Ukraine, joined it. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, anti-personnel mines cause a large number of civilian casualties and continue to pose a danger for many years after the end of hostilities.