The head of the Russian delegation to the Vienna talks on military security and arms control, Anton Mazur, said yesterday at the plenary session of the Joint Consultative Group on the Treaty of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe that Russia has decided to suspend its participation in meetings.
"For years, the Russian side has been doing its best to maintain the viability of the regime of control over conventional arms, it initiated talks on adapting the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, it ratified the agreement on the Adapted CFE Treaty. Regrettably, NATO countries have preferred to dodge the CFE provisions by means of the alliance’s expansion and use any pretexts to prevent the Agreement on the Adapted CFE Treaty from coming into effect," he said, recalling that "this course was pursued despite our repeated warnings about its harmful impacts on the regime of control over conventional weapons, and led to the unavoidable result - Russia suspending the CFE Treaty in 2007."
"Back then, the Russian side, taking into due account appeals from a number of the CFE Treaty signatories, decided to continue its participation in the work of the joint consultative group by way of exception. Taking this decision, we hoped that this platform would be used to work out a new regime of control over conventional arms. However, the dialogue on future regime of control over conventional arms that has been conducted in the format of the joint consultative group was stopped in 2011, and has never been resumed. In such conditions, Russia sees its further participation in meetings of the joint consultative group, which as a rule are reduced to reading out the agenda, as pointless from both the political and practical points of view, and as excessively costly from the financial and economic points of view," Mazur stressed.
"Russia has taken a decision to suspend its participation in meetings of the joint consultative group from March 11, 2015. Thus, the CFE Treaty suspension declared by Russia in 2007 has been completed," Mazur concluded, noting that this step does not mean that Russia rejects further dialogue on control over conventional arms in Europe if and when our partners are ripe for that.
The chief editor of 'National Defense', Igor Korotchenko, told Vestnik Kavkaza that "Russia believes that the CFE Treaty does not meet the national security interests of our country because there have been significant changes since it was signed"."It no longer meets the security interests of Russia in adapted form too. Therefore, the logical conclusion of a refusal of Russia from its implementation and of participation in appropriate coordinating bodies. We actually leave of this agreement for a long time ago, it just was not signed. In any case, Russia has clearly stated that the terms of this agreement are not profitable for us," the expert summed up.According to the editor-in-chief of 'Military-Industrial Courier' and the magazine 'Aerospace Defense', Michael Khodarenok, Russia's work in CFE lost a certain sense, since the contract was signed in Soviet times and was continually refined. "And now, due to the new geopolitical realities in the configuration in which it was originally conceived, it generally lost its meaning for us. Russia and our Western partners have not unanimity in this issue. Therefore, further work with such large differences in views on European security at the moment does not make sense," the expert said.Major General Sergei Kanchukov described Russia's withdrawal from the CFE as an ordinary event due to the fact that the country has suspended its work in this contract in 2007.
The chief editor of 'National Defense', Igor Korotchenko, told Vestnik Kavkaza that "Russia believes that the CFE Treaty does not meet the national security interests of our country, because there have been significant changes since it was signed."
"It no longer meets the security interests of Russia in adapted form either. Therefore, the logical conclusion of the refusal of Russia to implement it and to participate in the corresponding coordinating bodies. We actually left this agreement a long time ago, it just was not signed. In any case, Russia has clearly stated that the terms of this agreement are not beneficial to us," the expert summed up.
According to the editor-in-chief of 'Military-Industrial Courier' and the magazine 'Aerospace Defense', Michael Khodarenok, Russia's work in the CFE lost a certain sense, since the contract was signed in Soviet times and was continually refined. "And now, due to the new geopolitical realities in the configuration in which it was originally conceived, it has generally lost its meaning for us. Russia and our Western partners have no unanimity on this issue. Therefore, further work with such large differences in views on European security at the moment does not make sense," the expert said.
Major General Sergei Kanchukov described Russia's withdrawal from the CFE as an ordinary event due to the fact that the country has suspended its work as part of this contract in 2007.
