TEHRAN (Basirat)- On Friday, fourteen European countries called to re-launch a conventional arms control treaty with Russia. Russian military experts have commented on the initiative, focusing on how the US president-elect might contribute to the proposal.
On Friday, fourteen European countries called to re-launch a conventional arms control treaty with Russia. Russian military experts have commented on the initiative, focusing on how the US president-elect might contribute to the proposal.The foreign ministers of 14 European nations have called to renew
conventional arms controls to reduce military risks after seeing the
existing treaties "crumble" in recent years.
The initiative was put forward by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier and was signed by Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic,
Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Spain,
Sweden and Switzerland.
In a statement released by the German Foreign Office on Friday the
signatories called upon all states "that share responsibility for
Europe's security to join their endeavor and to support a structured
dialogue on conventional arms control in Europe."
"We are convinced that a re-launch of conventional arms control is one
important path towards a genuine and effective cooperative security
allowing for peace and stability on our continent," the statement read.
"Confronted with the increasingly unstable security situation in
Europe, we see an urgent need to re-establish strategic stability,
restraint, predictability and verifiable transparency and to reduce
military risks," said the ministers.
According to the document, the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces
in Europe is not being fully implemented and the OSCE’s Vienna Document
needs to be overhauled. Some provisions of the Open Skies Treaty are
also not being enforced.
The original Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) was
negotiated and concluded during the last years of the Cold War and
established comprehensive limits on key categories of conventional
military equipment in Europe (from the Atlantic to the Urals) and
mandated the destruction of excess weaponry.
The treaty proposed equal limits for the two "groups of
states-parties", the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the
Warsaw Pact.
In 2007, Russia suspended its participation in the treaty, and on March
10, 2015, citing NATO's de facto breach of the Treaty, Russia formally
announced it was completely halting its participation.
Commenting on the suggested initiative, President of the Academy of
Geopolitical Studies, Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov noted that the US
has long been opposed to the treaty. However with Donald Trump taking
the country's highest post, the prospects for such an agreement
considerably increase.
"Let's wait when Donald Trump gets into office and defines the
country's position towards NATO and Europe," he told Russia's online
newspaper Vzglyad.
However he noted that the previous treaty did not cover cruise
missiles and naval forces of the parties, and did not apply to the
territories of Poland and the Baltic states. In such a form the treaty
has little value to Russia and the new document requires sustained
negotiations with the participation of military and diplomatic experts.
Meanwhile Alexei Arbatov, head of the Center for International Security
at the Institute of World Economics and International Relations says
that the proposed initiative has no connection with Trump's election.
"This is just a reaction to last years' events. European countries
are concerned about the series of military drills on the border with
Russia and the rise in flights of NATO and Russian military jest in
close proximity to each other," he told the website.
Moscow is also concerned about the deployment of NATO contingents on
Russia's borders even on a rotational basis.
"The parties simply want to secure each other by signing a new treaty
and there are no visible hurdles to it. If Europe and Russia want to
de-escalate the conflict and move on, there is every reason to revive
this treaty," he said.
"If a new treaty fixes the number of military equipment deployed in
Europe, it will prevent its further build-up. If it agrees upon
reduction of the scale and frequency of military drills and stipulates
that they should not be held on the border with Russia, it will only
benefit Moscow," he added.
The expert also noted that the previous treaty did not include Poland
and the Baltic States, hence it would be useful to include them into the
new document, stipulating what national armies could be deployed to
their territories and what should be the maximum size of such a
contingent.