Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE Treaty)

Treaty of conventional armed forces in Europe or CFE Treaty was first stated on
November 19th, 1990 during the CSCE (Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe)
Summit in Paris, France. This agreement was signed by 30 member states consist of NATO and
Warsaw Pact state members. This agreement was mainly established by two big international
organizations that divided Europe into two blocks NATO and Warsaw Treaty Organization
states. Warsaw Pact itself was an alliance formed by Soviet Union/USSR, which then continued
by Russia after its collapsed in 1991, and Eastern Europe countries (such as Albania, Poland,
Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and Democratic Republic of Germany) with
aimed to balancing NATO forces in Europe.1 The main purpose of CFE Treaty was to reduce
the possibilities of surprise attack and the emerging of offensive power by the armed forces.
Then in May 15th, 1992, the member states signed Tashkent Agreement which arranged rules and
procedures of the implementation of CFE Treaty.2
The CFE Treaty then set the distribution of ex-USSR weapons and the restrictions of
each group’s armaments. According to Article IV, 1 st Paragraph each member states have to
implement equal limitation of armaments including:
1. 20.000 battle tanks (no more than 16.500 active units)
2. 30.000 armored vehicles (no more 27.300 active units), which is the number of armored
infantry fighting vehicles not more than 18.000, and not more than 1.500 units heavy
armament combat vehicles
3. 20.000 artillery pieces (with 17.000 active units)
4. 6.800 combat aircrafts
5. And 2.000 attack helicopters
Moreover, each stated should not deploy troops and military equipment not above the limits
which are:
1. 13.300 main battle tank
2. 20.000 armored vehicles
3. 13,700 artillery pieces

1
Milestone.(1953-1960).Warsaw Treaty Organization-1995. Accessed on January 4th, 2013
http://history.state.gov/milestones/1953-1960/WarsawTreaty
2
the data received from CFE Treaty document accessed on January 3 rd,2013.
http://www.bits.de/ac-archive/r-kontrolle-multilateral/on/cfe.pdf
 4. 5.150 combat aircrafts
5. and 1.500 attack helicopters

Besides all of those requirements, the CFE Treaty also restraint all of the member states to have
not more than one-third of armed forces in the determined region which are the entire European
region from Atlantic seas until Ural mountains (Ural Zone) including all European island
territories of the states members. The CFE Treaty also obligated each state to equalize their
holding of armaments and equipment (for a country with a large army level) in accordance with
the predetermined limitations.
In Article VII, CFE Treaty obligated each state member to provide immediate
information to other members regard the maximum level of weapons own by the state based on
the previous rule in the treaty. And they were allowed to change its maximum level within 90
days after the first notification. Furthermore, in Article VIII, each state obligated to achieve
Treaty limitation by reducing executes in three phases and complete it not more than 40 days
after the creation of the treaty. The reduction that was meant here are including weapon
destruction, turning into non-military, deactivation, and so on. And states were not allowed to
restrict or refuse any inspection regarding those subjects. While for the non-active units, they
should be saved in the permanent storage where the location was also informed to other states.
Furthermore, there was also a revision regard the CFE Treaty which arranged about the
national and territorial boundaries. Based on this revision, each state did not allowed to trainee or
deploy its military armed forces exceed the territorial number. And if a state want to place their
military in other territorial, they must get approval from UN Security Council or OCSE. This
agreement then was approved by all member states, including Russia, which was shown by its
withdrawal of military forces in Moldova and armed reduction in Georgia. The Treaty also
allows for the establishment of additional accessions, so that the new member states to join
NATO in this regime. Adapted Treaty will become an obligation after all the countries that
adopted the ratified treaty
For a long time, CFE Treaty had seemed to be an effective agreement in maintaining
security, especially in Europe. it was proven by the use of the treaty a s a tool to resolve post-war
crisis and to avoid misunderstanding that might be happened during crisis. Some inspection that
were carried out by this treaty also able to reduce tension between NATO and Russia during the
transition time after the broke down of USSR. CFE Treaty indeed, had been successfully became
a regulator in European politics and security by managing states behavior to not creating
conflict.3 But this stable regime was threatened by Russia’s decisions, to no longer apply and
implement this agreement in 2007.
On July 14th, 2007, Russian government under the role of President Vladimir Putin made
an announcement in which his country would no longer implement the CFE Treaty. 4 The reason
was because of Russia sees that this treaty no longer has an important meaning to make the treaty
become an adapted treaty. Therefore, Russia would no longer provide the annual report of its
military forces and also all of the inspection information related to the arms limitation
agreement, such as the amount of tank, armored vehicle, helicopter, and combat aircraft that
Russia’s possessed.
Russia claimed that its action was a response to NATO member states’ decision to
condition their ratification of the 1999 Adapted CFE Treaty on the resolution of a dispute over
Russian military deployments in parts of Moldova and Georgia. It was because until 2009, there
were only 4 states that ratified the adapted CFE Treaty which are Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan,
and Austria. Regarding the Adapted CFE Treaty, Russia had to withdraw its military forces from
Georgia and Moldova. But until 2004, there still no withdrawal because Russia thought that the
existence of peacekeeper in both country were still necessary in order to maintain security in CIS
(Commonwealth of Independent States) region. And as one of the ex-USSR country, Russia
considered itself to be the peacekeeper in CIS region.5
In response to this action, the government of the United States, and on behalf of NATO, began to
follow Russia’s action by suspended CFE Treaty in November 2011. This decision was came
after the US and NATO have tried over past four years finding diplomatic solution following
Russia’s decision in 2007. A long these years, US always try to find resolution in resolving CFE
dispute through the development of a draft framework for new negotiation in order to strengthen
the CFE Treaty regime. But Russia did not seem to have the same intention to start talks nor to
agree to resumption of compliance with the original CFE Treaty. The United stated told that
they would resume full CFE Treaty implementation only if Russia did the same to its Treaty
obligations.

3
Witkowsky, Anne; Garnett, Sherman; McCausland, Jeff.(2010). Salvaging the Conve Washington.Brooking Arms
Control Series, Paper 2.
4
Boese CFE Treaty Implementation.the data was accessed from ol Web site, on January 4 th 2013.
http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2008_01-02/cfe
5