NATO members suspend European arms control pact

Nov 23, 2011, 18:12 GMT

Brussels - Fourteen NATO countries have joined the United States in partially suspending a key European arms control pact, by no longer informing Russia about their armaments, diplomats said in Brussels.

The step was aimed at focusing Moscow's attention on the long-standing conflict over the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, which also limits the numbers of non-nuclear arms that countries can deploy, diplomats said in Austria.

The Vienna-based Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) was informed of the move on Tuesday.

Also on Wednesday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev ordered that country's army to prepare to deploy ballistic missiles near Lithuania and Poland, as a defence against a planned NATO missile defence shield.

Although Medvedev did not mention the CFE developments, the Western alliance's defence shield plan was one reason why Russia has not implemented that treaty since 2007.

Officially, Moscow took this step because Western countries did not integrate an amended version of the pact into their national laws.

NATO countries had demanded that Russia withdraw from Moldova and Georgia first.

The latest step by NATO countries 'puts the CFE treaty on the table,' one diplomat said in Vienna.

'This is a reaction to Russia having suspended the CFE treaty in 2007 and not being willing to return to it,' sources in Brussels said.

More members of the 28-member NATO alliance were planning to follow the US and the 14 other countries, which include Germany, in suspending the pact, according to the NATO sources.

Vienna diplomats said the move would not stop the flow of military information altogether, as OSCE countries have other formal information channels that remain in place.

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