GAVRIIL GRIGOROV, SPUTNIK, PHOTO OF THE KREMLIN SWIMMING POOL VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to the assembly of Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov today at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia.
BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO member countries that signed a key Cold War security treaty on Monday froze their participation in the deal just hours after Russia withdrew, raising new questions about the long-term of arms deals in Europe.
Many of NATO’s 31 allies are parties to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which aimed to prevent Cold War rivals from regrouping their forces within or near each other’s borders. The CFE was signed in November 1990, when the Soviet bloc was collapsing, but was not fully ratified until two years later.
NATO said today’s action through its signatory members is mandatory because “a scenario in which allied states respect the Treaty, while Russia does not, would be untenable. “
Earlier in the day, Moscow announced that it had finalized its withdrawal from the treaty. The long-awaited move, which the Kremlin attributes to NATO’s continued expansion closer to Russia’s borders, came after lawmakers in Moscow passed a bill proposed by President Vladimir. Putin denouncing the CFE.
U. S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said postponing the obligations of Washington and its allies would strengthen “NATO’s deterrence and defense capability by removing restrictions that have an effect on planning, deployments and training, restrictions that no longer bind Russia after Moscow’s withdrawal. “
Russia’s moves “demonstrate once again Moscow’s support for arms control,” he added.
The German Foreign Ministry said Berlin and its allies would not withdraw from the treaty. “In the event of a fundamental change in Russia’s behavior, a new application of the FSB remains possible,” he added.
The ministry said Germany intends to stick to the national limits set in the treaty for weapons systems. He criticized Moscow’s withdrawal, saying that “Russia is destroying some other pillar of our European security and weapons architecture. “
“Ensure that a traditional balanced perspective of forces is achieved in Europe without Russia’s involvement,” he added.
The treaty was one of several primary arms treaties involving Russia and the United States that have been stalled in recent years.
Last week, Putin signed a bill revoking Russia’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty, a move he said was mandatory to achieve parity with the United States.
In February, amid rising tensions between the U. S. and Russia over Ukraine, Moscow suspended its participation in the New START Treaty, the last remaining arms pact between the two countries.
The two countries also withdrew in 2019 from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, blaming others for violations.
The INF Treaty, signed by U. S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, bans the production, testing and deployment of land-based ballistic and cruise missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,410 miles).
William Alberque, director of strategy, generation and weapons at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, expressed fear about the risk of another arms treaty.
“What’s needed now is more transparency, more threat reduction, plus what we would call festival safeguards,” he said. “Basically, we want to run the festival in a way that doesn’t turn into a crippling arms race. “
At the time of its signing, the CFE provided for weapons limits for the Warsaw Pact and NATO, but the Warsaw Pact ceased to exist shortly after it was signed. Unsuccessful attempts were made to renegotiate its terms.
Russia suspended its participation in 2007 and announced in 2015 its goal of withdrawing completely.
In February 2022, Putin sent thousands of Russian troops to Ukraine, which also borders NATO members Poland, Romania and Hungary.
Declaring that Moscow’s withdrawal from the treaty was over, the Russian Foreign Ministry blamed the United States and its allies for the resolution and for the West’s alleged “destructive stance” toward the treaty.
“We have left the door open to the debate on how to repair the viability of traditional weapons in Europe,” he said. “However, our warring parties did not take advantage of this opportunity. “
The ministry said that “even the formal maintenance” of the treaty is “unacceptable from the attitude of Russia’s main security interests,” bringing up the advances in Ukraine and the recent expansion of NATO.
NATO said its members remained committed “to reducing military risks and preventing misperceptions and conflicts. “He said the alliance would continue to “consult and assess the implications of the existing security environment and its impact on the security” of the European Union. Atlantic area.
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