Moscow - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called for a moratorium by Russia of the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE), an agreement that removed a massive Red Army presence from Soviet and satellite states in 1990.
'I think it's reasonable to declare a moratorium on the fulfilling by Russia of this agreement. In any case, until all NATO countries without exception ratify it,' Putin said in his annual address to Russia's legislature, televised across the country.
The CFE limited NATO and the Soviet Union each to 20,000 tanks, 20,000 artillery pieces, 30,000 armoured combat vehicles, 6,800 combat aircraft and 2,000 attack helicopters between the Atlantic Ocean and the Ural Mountains.
Guy Roberts, NATO's deputy secretary general, told Interfax he hoped Putin's remarks were a suggestion, rather than an already-made decision.
It was not clear if the moratorium had already been taken: Putin implored the legislature to back the moratorium, adding 'as I understand, it's already supported.'
Putin's speech came amid increasing Russian rhetoric against a planned US missile-defence shield, despite an emergency visit earlier this week by US Defence Secretary Robert Gates to invite Russia to join the project as a partner.
Washington says the shield is meant to minimize the threat of any possible Iranian or North Korean missile attacks, but Russian officials have said even after Gates' visit that Russia is its true target.
In response, Moscow says any planned missile-defence elements in the Czech Republic or Poland could become targets of Russian nuclear or conventional missiles.
The Russian leader called for European-wide dialogue about the plans at a summit of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), adding that he supported Kazakhstan's candidacy as chair of the organization.
Kazakhstan's bid to chair the OSCE has been met with skepticism from European members of the group, best known for its monitoring of elections. The OSCE sharply criticized Kazakh parliamentary and presidential elections in 2004 and 2005.
'In the greater plan, we're talking about a culture ... of international relations without imposing models of development or forcing a natural movement of the historical process,' especially in questions of democratization, the Russian president added.
Putin in his address said 'practically all types of heavy arms' had been moved from the European part of Russia and said the United States would not limit the number of troops on a certain part of its territory 'for such a reason.'
The 1990 agreement was signed after decades of a huge Red Army presence across Eastern Europe and was heralded as a landmark deal for removing tensions across the Iron Curtain.
An adapted version of the treaty was signed in 1999 to account for the break-up of the Soviet Union. Russia has ratified the document, but NATO member-states say they will not sign it until Russia removes troops from breakaway republics in Georgia and Moldova, as the so-called Istanbul commitments of 1999 stipulate.
Putin on Thursday called the Istanbul commitments, which had political rather than legal force, 'not legally connected' to the CFE.
Additionally, the formerly Soviet Baltic states that are now part of NATO have not ratified the document, which Putin said 'creates real dangers with unpredictable surprises.'
'What are they? What are our partners?' Putin said, adding that they 'at the minimum behave badly, trying to gain one-sided advantages.'
Russia has said it will put 5 trillion rubles (188 billion dollars) toward military equipment by 2015, including 31 ships, 50 strategic bombers, 50 Topol M rocket systems and possibly an aircraft carrier.
Putin on Thursday said Russia was 'only ... using its competitive advantages, as all states of the world do without exception.'
About the CFE:
Provisions
Sourced from fas.org
The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) is a complex instrument which established a military balance between the two groups of States by providing equal ceilings for major weapons and equipment systems, namely for each group in the whole area from the Atlantic to the Urals:
20,000 tanks;
20,000 artillery pieces;
30,000 armoured combat vehicles;
6,800 combat aircraft
2,000 attack helicopters.
The group ceilings were subsequently translated into national limits for each individual State-Party. It also establishes within the Treaty area several sub regions where both groups would be allowed to keep equal numbers of the mentioned weapons systems, with further provisions on how many items could be kept in active units. Furthermore, the Treaty limits the proportion of armaments to be held by a single country to one third of the total numbers, the so-called "sufficiency rule". The Treaty stipulates that arms or equipment beyond the agreed limits have to be destroyed so that within 40 months from entering into force the limits will have been reached. It also includes a thorough notification and verification regime of on-site inspections for the notified holdings, challenge inspections, and the monitoring of destruction of treaty-limited items. Finally, the Treaty established in Vienna a body composed of all Treaty members, the Joint Consultative Group (JCG), as a forum for further consultations.
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Status
The Vienna CSCE Follow-up Meeting (1986 - 1989) endorsed, in parallel with the mandate for the Negotiations on Confidence-and Security Building Measures, the mandate to negotiate, within the framework of the CSCE process, measures for military stability of the conventional forces in Europe. The latter negotiations could build upon the experience gained within the former negotiations on Mutual Reductions of Forces and Armaments and Associated Measures in Central Europe (MBFR) which had been held in Vienna from 1973 until 1989. They differed, however, from the earlier negotiations in their scope since they were not limited to Central Europe but covered all of Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals. They also differed from other CSCE-mandated fora in that participation in them was limited to the then twenty-three Member-States of NATO and the Warsaw Treaty Organisation, and in that they were aimed at a legally binding Treaty rather than a politically binding agreement. Their objective was, according to their mandate, the establishing of a military equilibrium on a lower level of armaments between the Eastern and Western alliances. Negotiations conducted within the framework of the CSCE process resulted in the (legally binding) CFE Treaty of 17 November 1990.
After the signing of the Treaty in 1990 negotiations were continued on the basis of the CFE mandate in order to deal with personnel strength. They led to the Concluding Act of the Negotiation on Personnel Strength of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (so-called CFE-1A agreement), establishing limits on the manpower of certain kinds of forces, excluding, however, sea-based naval forces, internal security forces, or forces serving under UN command. Ceilings declared by each State take effect 40 months after entry into force. The agreement, also, contains provisions for information exchange, notification and verification. It was signed in Helsinki on 6 July 1992 on the occasion of the 1992 CSCE Summit. In contrast to the CFE Treaty, it is not legally binding but rather a political commitment.
Both, the CFE Treaty and the CFE-1A agreement came into force on 17 July 1992. For the CFE Treaty as well as the CFE-1A agreement the limits envisaged by them were to be legally reached by 16 November 1995. Due to the disappearance of the GDR and the break-up of the former Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia, there are currently 30 States parties to the CFE Treaty and CFE-1A agreement. |
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