Anatoly Antonov, head of the Russian delegation to the extraordinary conference of the States Parties to the Conventionnal Armed-Force in Europe Treaty, will show the West the way to the salvation of the CFE.
Photo: AFP
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CFE Gets Forced
An extraordinary conference of member states of the Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe is underway in Vienna. It was organized at Russia's initiative to “save the treaty.” However, it was really necessary to Moscow as a forum at which to issue an ultimatum: either basic changes will be made in military and political conditions that are disadvantageous to Russia or Russia will act independently on them.
This is the first extraordinary conference of CFE member states in the 17 years of the treaty's existence. It began on Tuesday and will end on Friday, unless it is extended.
The discussion is closed to nonparticipants, which is unsurprising, since it was understood ahead of time that it would be an arena for simmering disagreement. Moscow is dissatisfied with the treaty, which gated from before the fall of communism in Europe. An updated version of the treaty was prepared in 1999, but no Western country will ratify its as long as Russia has troops in Georgia and Transdniestria.
Russia has been hinting that it may leave the treaty unilaterally. It has four major objections to the current treaty. Those are that, first, NATO expansion has led to a steep increase in the number of permitted weapons. Second, the United States intends to place significant numbers of troops in Romania and Bulgaria, in violation of the treaty. Third, Western countries are not meeting their obligations to speed up the ratification process. Finally, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia still are not participants in the treaty, in spite of an agreement with NATO about them.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of June 14, 2007
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