Domestic

Domestic

Vienna hosts Emergency Meeting on CFE Treaty

12 June 2007 13:42 (UTC +04:00)

An emergency meeting is opening today in Vienna, Austria, to discuss the future of the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty. Foreign ministry press center told APA representatives of Azerbaijan in international organizations headquartered in Vienna are participating in the meeting. The three -day conference is being held behind closed doors.
The original CFE Treaty took 10 years to negotiate, was signed by 30 states in November 1990, and came in to force in 1992.
The CFE-II, negotiated in Istanbul in 1999, reflected the new, post-Soviet landscape by setting arms limits for individual countries, rather than zones. The agreement aided NATO’s expansion efforts by allowing signatory states to allow foreign forces on their soil.
Thus far only Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine have ratified the CFE-II.
The United States and other NATO members have refused to ratify a 1999 amended version of the treaty, saying Russia must first withdraw troops from Moldova and Georgia.
Russia has rejected linking the two issues. /APA/