Russia to withdraw from European armed forces treaty on Nov 7

Moscow: Russia will officially pull out of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) on November 7 this year, the Foreign Ministry announced in a statement.

As required, Russia has notified all participants of the CFE of its decision to withdraw from the treaty and its departure will come into force 150 days after the notification, Xinhua news agency quoted the statement issued on Friday as saying.

Last month, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law on the denunciation of the CFE following the approval of the parliament.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said then that Russia’s withdrawal would have no direct impact because the mechanism had been non-working for a long time.

The CFE was originally signed in 1990 by the then NATO members and the then six Warsaw Treaty states.

The agreement came into force in 1992.

The pact was aimed at establishing a balance between the two military alliances by setting limits on the quantities of weapons and military equipment that all parties were allowed to amass.