II. European arms control: the CFE regime

Chapter:

10. Conventional arms control and military confidence building

Source:

SIPRI Yearbook 2011

Author(s):

Zdzislaw Lachowski

The CFE Treaty is the most elaborate conventional arms regime worldwide.¹ During the period 1992–2010 its implementation led to more than a 50 per cent decrease in the parties’ aggregate holdings of the treaty-limited equipment (TLE)—battle tanks, armoured combat vehicles, artillery of at least 100-mm calibre, combat aircraft and attack helicopters.² The treaty is built on past efforts to balance major categories of TLE between the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the now defunct Warsaw Treaty Organization in its Atlantic-to-the-Urals zone of application. The 1999 Agreement on Adaptation of the CFE Treaty would better respond to the geopolitical shifts that have occurred and the current security situation, but it has not entered into force because NATO members and other parties have refused to ratify it until Russia complies with the commitments it made at the 1999 OSCE Istanbul Summit.³ The 1990 CFE Treaty and its associated agreed documents and decisions remain valid for all parties but Russia, which has unilaterally suspended its implementation of the treaty.⁴ Another state party, Azerbaijan, has suggested reconsideration of the maximum national levels for holdings in order to allow a state party to ‘better meet’ current security conditions.⁵