BAKU. May 31 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia has proposed bringing into force an adapted Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty on a temporary basis, Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said.
"As for the CFE Treaty Review Conference, which has opened in Vienna, Russia has proposed that this treaty be brought into force on a temporary basis starting from October this year - in other words, all the signatories should be implementing it on a temporary basis," Ivanov said at a news conference in Baku on Wednesday.
"Then we will wait and see," he added.
The current control mechanism within the CFE Treaty either does not work at all or is very inefficient, Ivanov said.
"We are honoring all our obligations under the CFE Treaty, including the flank limits in the Caucasus. We are honoring them for now," he said.
Ivanov noted that the CFE Treaty was concluded in the early 1990s using the so-called bloc principle. The military-political situation in Europe radically changed soon afterwards, but a number of countries, including the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria, are still counted within the so-called eastern bloc. "The absurdity of this is obvious, and an adapted CFE Treaty was signed, which is currently the only legal document regulating mechanisms of control over conventional forces. The treaty also imposes flank limits. At the present time, the treaty has been ratified only by four countries, including Russia," Ivanov said.
The U.S. and Bulgaria recently signed an agreement on the deployment of a 250-strong military base in Bulgaria, whose contingent might be further increased to 5,000 servicemen. The deal also stipulates the stationing of military hardware, including heavy vehicles.
"When we asked what prompted all this, we were told that this is an insignificant military presence," Ivanov said. "At the same time, they demanded that Russia withdraw its peacekeepers from Transdniestria, where there are only 1,500 of them. Some of them are performing peacekeeping duties and preventing a war between Moldova and Transdniestria. And the other several hundreds are guarding depots with ammunition and materiel remaining from the defunct 14th army," he said.
Ivanov said that the problem related to the ratification of the adapted CFE Treaty by Western countries indicated "the presence of double standards."