INTUSK MAGAZINE

According to a document available on the government's legal information website, President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus has signed a measure suspending the Convention on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (now known as the CFE). 

The bill, enacted by the upper house of Belarus in early May, states, "The Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe of November 19, 1990, is hereby suspended."

Early in April, the presidential press office in Belarus announced that the president had authorised the submission of a bill to the House of Representatives on the suspension of the nation's membership in the CFE Treaty, which Minsk had signed in 1992. 

The press office claims that although Belarus fulfilled all of its commitments under the treaty, the Czech Republic and Poland chose in 2022 and 2023, respectively, to suspend the CFE Treaty with respect to Belarus. In October 2023, Minsk responded in like to these two nations. Furthermore, the nations that make up NATO resolved in November 2023 to halt their membership in the pact indefinitely. This, in Belarus's opinion, effectively implies that the treaty has been suspended.

The CFE Treaty establishes upper and lower bounds on the total amount of conventional weapons and equipment, along with procedures for confirming adherence to agreements through information sharing and inspections. 1990 saw the signing of the pact, which was revised in 1997. 

NATO members refused to adopt the amended text and stuck to the 1990 clauses, which included standards for conventional weapons derived from the alliance's balance with the now-defunct Warsaw Pact. For this reason, Russia was forced to halt the application of the agreement's provisions in 2007 and to revoke its participation in the treaty in March 2015. On May 29, 2023, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a legislation rejecting the CFE Treaty, which went into effect on June 9.