MOLDOVA TO SUSPEND PARTICIPATION IN TREATY ON CONVENTIONAL ARMED FORCES IN EUROPE

Moldova will suspend its participation in the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), signed in Paris on November 19, 1990. This is stipulated by a draft law approved by the government on Wednesday.

The Defense Ministry explains the need for such a measure by several factors, including: Russia's withdrawal from the treaty in 2023 and Russia's military aggression against one of the parties to the treaty, Ukraine.

"Russia's withdrawal from the treaty has completely changed the circumstances that led to the signing of the treaty in 1990," Defense Ministry State Secretary Valeriu Mija said at a government meeting.

After the law is approved, the Foreign Ministry will notify the Netherlands, the document's depositary country, of this decision.

According to the procedure, the suspension of the CFE Treaty must be approved by the parliament and promulgated by the president. After that, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will notify the Kingdom of the Netherlands of the decision, as the country is the depositary of the document.

The CFE Treaty was signed in Paris in 1990 by the Soviet Union, and in 1992 the member states of the former USSR reached an agreement on the maximum amount of military equipment they could have on their territory. The document regulated the balance of military forces between NATO and the Warsaw Pact signatories (Romania, Albania, the former USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Germany, Hungary and Bulgaria).

The treaty was open-ended. Each state party had the right to withdraw from the CFE Treaty provided that all other states parties were notified of this decision in advance (at least 150 days in advance).

On July 13, 2007, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree "On Suspension of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and Related International Treaties by the Russian Federation", and on November 29, 2007 the relevant law was adopted. In 2023, Russia denounced the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE Treaty).