Foreign Ministry statement on Russia sending notifications to states-parties to the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE)

Federal Law No. 179-FZ On Denunciation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe by the Russian Federation, adopted on May 29, 2023, took effect on June 9.

Russia sent notifications as prescribed by this treaty, also known as the CFE, to the treaty’s depositary (the Netherlands) and other states-parties via their embassies in Moscow and through delegations in the Joint Consultative Group on the CFE in Vienna.

Russia notified the states-parties of its decision to withdraw from the CFE within 150 days of the notice, or at midnight on November 7, 2023.

The notices specify that the Russian Federation considers it necessary to completely withdraw from the CFE due to the exceptional circumstances associated with the treaty that jeopardise Russia’s supreme interests. Specifically, these circumstances include:

– New countries joining NATO without joining the CFE or transferring from the eastern group of the CFE signatories to the western group, and the deployment of older NATO members’ conventional arms on the territories of the new members, resulting in multiple bypassing or exceeding the group ceilings under the CFE.

– Non-compliance by the CFE states-parties that are also members of NATO with the political commitments to accelerating ratification of the Agreement on Adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, undertaken in Istanbul on November 19, 1999, and to lowering the levels envisaged by the agreement.

– Other actions by certain CFE states-parties that run counter to the goals of the treaty, in particular, actions concerning the transfer of conventional arms.

Due to Russia’s withdrawal from the CFE, two other associated legally binding documents will cease to be in force for the Russian Federation, of which all the states-parties have been notified. The documents include the Budapest Agreement on Maximum Levels of Holdings of Conventional Arms and Equipment for the Members of the Warsaw Treaty of November 3, 1990, and the Flank Document Agreement of May 31, 1996. The former was designed to determine the levels of conventional arms for each member of the then-effective Warsaw Pact and level change mechanisms while the latter prescribed a temporary solution to the issue of flank restrictions that resulted from the dissolution of the USSR.

Upon receiving Russia’s notice, the CFE depositary is to convene a conference of the states-parties to discuss issues connected with Russia’s withdrawal from the CFE, as specified in the treaty (or within 21 days). At the conference, Russia’s representative will present our firm stance based on the Federal Law On Denunciation of the CFE Treaty and will once again publicly convey Russia’s point of view to the NATO countries and the global community, which is that the collective West, with its destructive actions, has made it impossible for us to be part of the CFE.

As a reminder, the treaty was signed in 1990 between the members of the Warsaw Treaty and the NATO countries, to establish a balance of forces between the members of these military and political unions at lowered levels, and to restrict the deployment of their conventional weapons along the contact line. However, subsequent events – dissolution of the Warsaw Treaty and the Soviet Union, new conflicts on our territory and the consequential expansion of NATO to the east – prompted the adaptation of the CFE to the new circumstances. At Russia’s insistence, the Agreement on Adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe was signed on November 19, 1999, in Istanbul, to never commence due to the destructive position of the Western countries that declined its ratification and continued bypassing the restrictions under the initial CFE by expanding the alliance. In these conditions, Russia suspended the implementation of its CFE obligations in 2007 but left the door open for reviving conventional arms control in Europe. The Western countries have had more than enough time to show common sense – and yet, they chose confrontation with Russia, which was reflected in NATO’s new strategic concept, among other things, not to mention the entirety of their hostile actions against our country, including the pumping of weapons and military equipment to the Kiev regime.

As emphasised in Russia’s notices, a safe and stable balance of conventional arms in the north of Europe has been seriously undermined by the recent accession to NATO of Finland, a non-CFE country that borders Russian territory which is regulated by the CFE, and the prospects of deploying conventional arms of third countries in Finland, along with the ongoing accession of Sweden, also not a CFE member. These steps were the last straw that prompted the Russian Federation to finally exit the treaty.  

During the ratification of the Agreement on Adaptation of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe in 2004, the State Duma issued a statement to the effect that, in the event of exceptional circumstances that may threaten the highest interests of the Russian Federation, the state will take political, diplomatic and other measures to eliminate such circumstances as stipulated by the Federal Law On International Treaties of the Russian Federation that affect the CFE regime and the Adapted CFE Treaty.

It is clear that, in today’s conditions, the CFE has definitely become a vestige of the past. Our opponents should not have any illusions about Russia returning to the CFE compliance.

Obviously, it is time to take the steps recommended by our lawmakers, as evidenced by the unanimous vote in favour of the Federal Law On Denunciation of the CFE Treaty in both houses of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation.

The Russian Foreign Ministry will take the necessary actions to fully comply with the law.