Moldovan govt approves withdrawal from CFE Treaty

CHISINAU. March 6 (Interfax) - The Republic of Moldova is withdrawing from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), as per a decision approved by the government at its meeting on Wednesday.

The decision to suspend the CFE Treaty in Moldova has yet to be endorsed by the country's parliament and cleared by the president. Following this, the Moldovan Foreign Ministry will notify the Netherlands of the decision, as the treaty's depository.

The Soviet Union signed the CFE Treaty in 1990. After the Soviet Union's breakup, its former republics reached agreement in 1992 on the maximum amount of military hardware they could have on their territories.

The CFE Treaty, which was concluded on November 19, 1990, stipulated a balance of armed forces between NATO and the member states of the Warsaw Pact, signed by Albania (withdrew 1968), Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany (before reunification on October 3, 1990), Hungary, Poland, Romania and the USSR. The treaty set quantitative limitations on five principal categories of conventional weapons and hardware in the signatories' armed forces, such as tanks, armored combat vehicles, heavy artillery systems, attack helicopters, and combat aircraft, in the area covered by the treaty. The treaty was of unlimited duration. Any signatory was entitled to withdraw from the treaty upon giving notice of its decision to all other participants at least 150 days prior to its intended withdrawal.