NATO enlargement forces Russia to denounce the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, The Paper writes. According to the newspaper, Moscow’s decision is absolutely logical – the CFE Treaty only tied its hands. Now Russia has a chance to strengthen its position in Europe.
politobzor.net
On May 16, the Russian Duma approved a law on withdrawal from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE). The chairman of the State Duma Committee on Foreign Affairs, Leonid Slutsky, said he would inform all governments of Moscow’s decision to denounce the CFE Treaty.
Russia’s withdrawal from the CFE Treaty in the future will aggravate the security situation in Europe and may even trigger a new arms race.
Since the outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict, many states around the world have begun to expand their arsenals on a large scale. Poland, for example, has been at the forefront of anti-Russian policy since the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis. In addition to its active assistance to Kiev, it has a very tough attitude towards Moscow. To compensate for the lack of armaments after sending them to Ukraine, Poland began to rapidly build up its armed forces. In 2022, Warsaw decided to spend 14.8 billion dollars to purchase 980 K2 “Black Panther” tanks, 648 self-propelled K-9155mm howitzers and 48 advanced F/A-50 trainer/light fighter jets from South Korea.
Soon after, Poland used another $12.5 billion to buy 96 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters. In February 2023, Polish Deputy Defense Minister Marius Blaszczak announced that Warsaw planned to order 1,400 Badger tracked infantry fighting vehicles produced by the Polish company Huta Stalowa Wola (HSW) and a family of universal modular tracked vehicles on the same chassis. This scale of military reinforcement will make Poland the largest tank nation and owner of the largest number of infantry fighting vehicles among European NATO members.
Germany’s actions are also striking. After the outbreak of the Ukrainian conflict, its government decided to increase national defence spending. The Bundesrat approved a special defence fund of €100 billion. In September 2022, according to German media reports, Germany put forward the goal of “becoming Europe’s leading military power”. The country’s then defence minister, Christine Lambrecht, confirmed that the authorities planned to create three combat-ready army divisions by the early 2030s. She also called for a relaxation of strict defence export regulations so that Berlin could participate in European projects.
Freed from the shackles of the CFE Treaty, in theory Russia could build up and deploy more conventional weapons in the future. Together with its “nuclear cudgel”, such a decision would be able to strengthen Moscow’s deterrence of the Western world. However, the pressure could force more countries (e.g. Finland) into an arms race, which in turn would force Russia to move from “political agreements” to “real action”.
“One can imagine that because of such a vicious circle, the dark clouds of conflict over Europe are unlikely to dissipate any time soon,” the paper concludes.
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