The United States on Friday slammed Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to temporarily stop honoring the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, saying the "abrupt" move was a "mistake."
U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns expressed his "disappointment" before Putin signed the decision into law, calling it an "unilateral abandonment of the most important weapons control regime" in the last 20 years.
Speaking at a press conference in Madrid where he was attending the annual meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), Burns said the CFE treaty turned "the brutal division of the Cold War times into a normal and transparent regime" and that Russia's withdrawal will eliminate this transparency and make everybody ask themselves what Moscow is doing.
According to the Russian decision due to take effect on Dec. 12,Moscow would temporarily stop providing information on its deployment of conventional forces and would not allow inspections. As long as the decision remains alive, Russia will not be bound by any conventional weapons limits set by the CFE for maintaining military balance in Europe.
The treaty aims to do so by setting limits on key categories of conventional military equipment for NATO countries and those of the rival Warsaw Pact.
It was signed in 1990 and an adapted treaty was agreed upon in 1999. So far only Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have ratified the revised version. NATO countries have refused to do so, conditioning their approval on Russia's fulfillment of the so-called "Istanbul obligations", under which Russia has to pull out its troops from Moldova and Georgia.
Also on Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov who was also attending the OSCE meeting, said that the United States uses the organization as a political pressure instrument, saying the OSCE needs to change and give up the current "irregular regime."
Lavrov said the OSCE has been plunged in a "serious crisis" and that Russia will work "to make the OSCE an equal partners organization."
Source: Xinhua
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