Russia Suspends the Treaty of CFE, Impact on China

fishhead

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Putin declaration sparks NATO concern

Reuters

April 26, 2007 at 12:23 PM EST

OSLO — A row between the United States and Russia over U.S. plans to build a missile shield in eastern Europe escalated on Thursday when President Vladimir Putin declared a moratorium on a key European arms control treaty.

Mr. Putin's announcement came hours before NATO and Russian officials were to discuss a project U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted was no threat to Moscow, brushing off such Russian concerns as “purely ludicrous”.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said he would ask Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to explain Mr. Putin's decision to suspend the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) and rejected Mr. Putin's accusation that NATO was ignoring it.

“The NATO allies attach great importance to the CFE treaty and are of the opinion that it is important that the adapted CFE treaty will be ratified,” Mr. de Hoop Scheffer told reporters in Oslo ahead of a NATO meeting with Lavrov. “There are a number of hurdles in the way, the Istanbul commitments.”

He was referring to NATO's long-standing insistence that Russia withdraw its remaining troops from Georgia and Moldova before its members ratify a revised version of the CFE.

The CFE Treaty was negotiated in the months after the Cold War among the then-22 member states of NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries with the goal of achieving verifiable reductions in conventional military equipment. Only Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine have so far ratified an adapted 1999 version.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged open debate on the U.S. shield to ease tensions that some observers have said are becoming reminiscent of the Cold War.

“The key thing is to prevent a spiral of misunderstanding between Russia and the United States,” Mr. Steinmeier, whose German Social Democrats have been vocal critics of the U.S. plan, told reporters.

Mr. Putin's move was the latest broadside from Moscow against the U.S. scheme to base missile interceptors in Poland and radar in the Czech Republic from 2012 to pre-empt what it sees as a threat from Iran and North Korea.

Mr. Putin, in a speech to both houses of parliament, accused NATO allies of ignoring clauses in the CFE and said the U.S. shield plan had only made matters worse.

“In this connection, I consider it expedient to declare a moratorium on Russia's implementation of this treaty — in any case, until all countries of the world have ratified and started to strictly implement it,” Mr. Putin said in the annual address.

Putin aide Arkady Dvorkovich told a news briefing in Moscow that Russia had no plans to exit the treaty immediately and wanted consultations with NATO on the matter.

Ms. Rice earlier gave short shrift to concerns in Moscow that the shield was a threat.

“The idea that somehow 10 interceptors and a few radars in eastern Europe are going to threaten the Soviet strategic deterrent is purely ludicrous and everybody knows it,” she said, referring to the Soviet Union in a slip of the tongue, even as she urged Russia to abandon Cold War thinking.
 

fishhead

Banned Idiot
This is the big blow to the world after the cold war. From the reaction of western European countries, you see it more like a confrontation between Russia and US, over Eastern Europe, the Russian influential sphere in the past.

It works in Chinese favor for sure, but also a problem for China, who is very reluctant to be drawn into a Russia-US hostility.
 

Gollevainen

Colonel
VIP Professional
Registered Member
...Nice try, but this still hasent anything to do with china, so off we go to the proper forum
 
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