Russia to suspend Europe arms treaty from December 12

Oct 16, 2007, 15:04 GMT

Moscow - Russia is to suspend its participation in the treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) from December 12, it was confirmed Tuesday.

'From December 12, Russia will declare a moratorium on the continued participation in the (CFE) treaty,' state Duma deputy speaker Lubov Sliska was quoted by news agency Interfax as telling a group of visiting EU representatives.

'Experience shows us that nobody but Russia has need of this accord,' she added.

Russia has repeatedly stressed its desire to revive and modernize the Soviet nuclear arms control treaty, urging NATO member states to ratify a revised contract.

NATO, however, has irked Russia by setting the withdrawal of Russian peacekeeping forces from Georgia as a precondition for revising the accord.

Russia had previously threatened to withdraw from the treaty ahead of Russian-US ministerial talks in Moscow last week.

The talks, between the two countries' foreign and defence ministers, were held to address Russian concerns over US plans for a missile defence system in Eastern Europe.

Slitska told the EU deputies that the missile defence system was 'the greatest issue of concern' for Russia, Interfax reported.

She recommended that each European country's parliament closely study the question, underlining that the proposed early warning system in the Czech Republic and interceptor missiles in Poland would not protect Italy, Portugal and Greece from an Iranian threat.

Russia sees the planned missile system as a menace to its security, while the US wants it to protect from nuclear and missile threats from 'rogue' states such as Iran.

Russia would like to involve Europeans, who are not enthusiastic about the missile defence system, in objecting to the plan, Fydor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of journal Russian in Global Affairs said in an interview last week.

Russia's plan will be difficult to carry out, however, because the closer the project moves to a mediated and international solution, the easier it will be for Europeans to accept, he said.

President Vladimir Putin at last week's Moscow summit urged US officials to make the system more 'global' or freeze the missile defence plans.

With regard to the CFE treaty, Slitska said: 'Russia will always insist that its views are considered and that its opinion is taken into account, particularly when dealing with questions of defence.'