The original Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) was negotiated and concluded during the last years of the Cold War and established comprehensive limits on key categories of conventional military equipment in Europe (from the Atlantic to the Urals) and mandated the destruction of excess weaponry. The treaty proposed equal limits for the two "groups of states-parties", the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and the Warsaw Pact. In 1999, the Adapted CFE was signed to take in consideration the changed geopolitical realities and the disbanding of the Warsaw Pact, but NATO refused to ratify it, citing Russian failure to comply to the Istanbul Commitments. In 2007, Russia "suspended" its participation in the treaty, citing the US presence in Eastern Europe and NATO's refusal to ratify the Adapted CFE treaty. On 10 March 2015, citing NATO's alleged de facto breach of the Treaty, Russia formally announced it was "completely" halting its participation as of the next day. On 7 November 2023, Russia withdrew from the treaty, and in response the United States and its NATO allies suspended their participation in the treaty. Almost all other parties have since suspended their participation.
History
Background
In 1972, US president Richard Nixon and Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev reached a compromise agreement to hold separate political and military negotiations. The Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) would deal with political issues, and Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions (MBFR) with military issues. The CSCE resulted in 1975 in 35 nations signing the concluding document: the Helsinki Final Act. Negotiations for MBFR were stalled by the USSR in 1979 because of NATO's decision to deploy new intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe. In 1986, Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev proposed in the context of MBFR negotiations to reduce ground and air forces, and to include conventional and nuclear weapons from the Atlantic to the Urals. This proposal was formalized later that year during a Warsaw Treaty meeting. NATO's North Atlantic Council of foreign ministers issued the Brussels Declaration on Conventional Arms Control, which called for two distinct sets of negotiations: one to build on the Confidence and Security-Building Measures (CSBM) results of the Stockholm Conference and the other to establish conventional stability in Europe through negotiations on conventional arms control from the Atlantic to the Urals (ATTU). In 1987, the Stockholm Document entered into force and for the first time provided a negotiated right to conduct on-site inspections of military forces in the field.
Informal talks between the 16 NATO and the 7 Warsaw Treaty nations began in Vienna on 17 February 1987 on a mandate for conventional negotiations in Europe, which would set out the treaty negotiating guidelines. Several months later, on 27 June, NATO presented a draft mandate during the 23-nation conference in Vienna. The mandate called for elimination of force disparities, capability for surprise attack, and large-scale offensive operations, and the establishment of an effective verification system. Meanwhile, in December the INF Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union was signed, effectively allowing mutual inspections. During the May–June 1988 Moscow Summit, US President Ronald Reagan and General Secretary Gorbachev emphasized the importance of stability and security in Europe, specifically calling for data exchange, verification of these data, and then reductions. In December 1988, Gorbachev announced in the United Nations a unilateral withdrawal of 50,000 troops from Eastern Europe, and demobilization of 500,000 Soviet troops.
CFE negotiations
In January 1989, NATO and the Warsaw Treaty members produced the Mandate for the Negotiation on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. The mandate set out objectives for the CFE Treaty and established negotiating principles, and formal negotiations began on 9 March 1989 in Vienna. When US President George H. W. Bush and France's President François Mitterrand met in May, Bush announced the acceptance of reductions of combat aircraft and helicopters. He also proposed a ceiling of 275,000 personnel stationed in Europe by the US and Soviet Union. Bush's proposal was formally adopted during the 1989 Brussels NATO summit and subsequently presented in Vienna.
In July, the 1989 Polish legislative election held in accord with the Polish Round Table Agreement resulted in the appointment on 24 August 1989 of the first non-communist Prime Minister, considered an effective end of communist rule in Poland, followed in November by the fall of the Berlin Wall in Germany. In the following months revolutions broke out in Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria and Albania. Bush and Gorbachev agreed to speed up arms control and economic negotiations. Bush proposed even steeper reductions, and the Soviet Union negotiated and concluded troop withdrawal agreements with Warsaw Treaty states. The ensuing German reunification would lead to the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany linked to the CFE treaty by specifying that certain military limits imposed on Germany would come into force upon the conclusion of the CFE Treaty.
The text of the treaty was approved by the 22 negotiating states on 15 November 1990 in Vienna.
The Vienna Document on confidence- and security-building measures, also first adopted in 1990, and the CFE Treaty, were seen as parallel peace process components by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).
1990 signature ceremony in Paris
The Treaty was signed in Paris on November 19, 1990 by 22 countries. These were divided into two groups:
- the then-16 NATO members: the United States, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and Belgium.
- the then-six Warsaw Treaty states: Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union
Ratification
The treaty entered into force on 9 November 1992. In 1991 the USSR and the Warsaw Treaty dissolved and Czechoslovakia was in the middle of splitting into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which explains why the treaty was ratified by 30 rather than 22 states:
- The then-16 NATO members
- The eight former USSR republics that have territory west of the Urals. These former USSR republics include Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine.
- the six former Warsaw Treaty members: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Romania.
In 1994, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) was formed and currently includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Russia, as well as Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, though the latter two states did not join the treaty, while Russia suspended its participation in 2015. In September 2022, the lack of Russian support during the Armenia–Azerbaijan border clashes prompted a national debate in Armenia, as an increasing percentage of the population put into doubt whether it is beneficial to continue CSTO membership, calling for realignment of the state with NATO instead.
In contrast, most former non-USSR Warsaw Treaty members subsequently joined NATO, followed later by the Baltic states and the states of the former Yugoslavia (except Serbia, Kosovo and Bosnia and Herzegovina) which however did not join the treaty. Furthermore, the former Soviet Union republics of Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine, also aspire to join.
Azerbaijan in turn balances between the blocs without joining any.
1996 amendment
On 31 May 1996, the treaty was amended by the so-called flank agreement, which relaxed the restrictions for Russia and Ukraine in the flank region defined in Article V, subparagraph 1(A) of the treaty.
2007–2015 partial suspension of Russian participation
On 14 July 2007, Vladimir Putin announced that Russia would suspend implementation of its Treaty obligations, effective after 150 days. Moscow continued to participate in the JCG, because it hoped that dialogue could lead to the creation of an effective, new conventional arms control regime in Europe.
In 2007 Russia specified steps that NATO could take to end the suspension. "These include [NATO] members cutting their arms allotments and further restricting temporary weapons deployments on each NATO member's territory. Russia also want[ed] constraints eliminated on how many forces it can deploy in its southern and northern flanks. Moreover, it is pressing NATO members to ratify a 1999 updated version of the accord, known as the Adapted CFE Treaty, and demanding that the four alliance members outside the original treaty, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Slovenia, join it."
2015 indefinite total withdrawal of Russian participation
In March 2015, the Russian Federation announced that it had taken the decision to completely withdraw its participation in the Treaty. Russian diplomat Mikhail Ulyanov said Russia would be unlikely to return to compliance because the accord, "created when the Warsaw Pact was still in existence, is 'anachronistic' and 'absolutely out of sync with the present realities'".
2023 Russia denounces TCAFE
On 7 November 2023 Russia denounced the TCAFE. On the same day in response NATO announced its members would suspend participation.
2024 suspension of Greek participation
On 9 February 2024, Greece suspended its participation in the TCAFE.
2024 suspension of Polish participation
On 29 March 2024, President Duda of Poland suspended his country's participation in the TCAFE. This had been foreseen by the NATO statement, and the vote in the Sejm.
2024 suspension of Turkish participation
On 5 April 2024, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan issued a presidential decree that suspended the Turkish participation in the treaty.
Content
Arms ceilings
The CFE Treaty set equal ceilings for each bloc (NATO and the Warsaw Treaty Organization), from the Atlantic to the Urals, on key armaments essential for conducting surprise attacks and initiating large-scale offensive operations. Collectively, the treaty participants agreed that neither side could have more than:
- 20,000 tanks;
- 20,000 artillery pieces;
- 30,000 armored combat vehicles (ACVs);
- 6,800 combat aircraft; and
- 2,000 attack helicopters.
To further limit the readiness of armed forces, the treaty set equal ceilings on equipment that could be deployed with active units. Other ground equipment had to be place in designated permanent storage sites. The limits for equipment each side could have in active units were:
- 16,500 tanks;
- 17,000 artillery pieces; and
- 27,300 armored combat vehicles (ACVs);
The treaty further limited the proportion of armaments that could be held by any one country in Europe to about one-third of the total for all countries in Europe – the "sufficiency" rule.
All sea-based Naval forces were excluded from CFE Treaty accountability.
Regional arrangements
In addition to limits on the number of armaments in each category on each side, the treaty included regional limits intended to prevent destabilizing force concentrations of ground equipment.
Destruction
To meet required troop ceilings, equipment had to be destroyed or, if possible, converted to non-military purposes.
Verification
The treaty included unprecedented provisions for detailed information exchanges, on-site inspections, challenge inspections, and on-site monitoring of destruction. Treaty parties received an unlimited right to monitor the process of destruction. Satellite surveillance was used to verify placement and progress on destruction of large military equipment like vehicles and tanks.
Joint Consultative Group
Finally, the Treaty established in Vienna a body composed of all Treaty members, which was called the Joint Consultative Group (JCG), and which dealt with questions relating to compliance with the provisions of the Treaty. The group aimed to:
- Resolve ambiguities and differences in interpretation
- Consider measures that enhance the Treaty's viability and effectiveness
- Resolve technical questions
- Look into disputes that may arise from the Treaty's implementation
Implementation
After the treaty entered into force, a 4-month baseline inspection period began. Twenty-five percent of the destruction had to be completed by the end of 1 year, 60% by the end of 2 years, and all destruction required by the treaty completed by the end of 3 years.
The principal accomplishment was the large-scale reduction or destruction of conventional military equipment in the Atlantic Ocean to the Ural Mountains (ATTU) region during the first 5 years the Treaty was in effect. By the end of the Treaty's reduction period in 1995, when equipment limits took effect, the 30 States Parties completed and verified by inspection the destruction or conversion of over 52,000 battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, artillery pieces, combat aircraft and attack helicopters. In addition, they have conducted/accepted over 4,000 intrusive on-site inspections of military units/installations, and of specified areas.