NATO countries condemned Russia's decision to withdraw from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
Today Russia has officially notified all states that have signed the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) of its withdrawal from it. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation reported that this will happen at 00:00 on November 7, 2023.
In addition, from the same time, the Russian Federation ceases to comply with the Budapest Memorandum on Security Guarantees, concluded in December 1994 by the leaders of Ukraine, Russia, Great Britain and the United States. The law on the denunciation of the CFE Treaty was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on May 29 this year.
One of the reasons for the denunciation of these agreements by Moscow is the ongoing expansion of NATO to the east, expressed in the recent entry into the alliance of Finland and the continuation of procedures for the admission of Sweden.
The reaction of the West to these decisions of Moscow followed immediately. A few hours after the publication of the statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry, a kind of collective petition appeared on the website of the North Atlantic Alliance, in which the NATO countries condemned Russia's decision to "withdraw from the historic Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe." Among other things, the statement, which is also available for review in Russian, notes that a state invited to join NATO is joining it. Obviously, we are talking about Sweden.
Naturally, the members of the alliance accused Moscow of failing to fulfill its obligations under the CFE Treaty for many years. Although until the suspension of our country's participation in the agreement in 2007, of all the states that signed it in 1990, only Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine ratified the version of the agreement adapted in 1999. None of the NATO countries has ratified the updated version of the CFE Treaty.
According to NATO, it is Russia that systematically undermines Euro-Atlantic security. Although all that was needed from the United States and other countries of the alliance was to get Ukraine to implement the Minsk agreements and fulfill its own promises not to expand the alliance to the east.
NATO Allies Call on Russia to Fulfill its Commitments and Responsibilities and Use the Time Left Before Withdrawal to Reconsider its Decision
- said in the collective petition of the allies in the military bloc.
To all appearances, Russia's withdrawal from the CFE Treaty has seriously alarmed Western politicians. The petition says that the countries of the alliance have begun consultations on the legal termination of Russia's participation in the agreement and the impact of this decision "on the security of the North Atlantic Alliance."
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