MOSCOW. March 30 (Interfax-AVN) - Moscow intends to demand that Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovenia agree to observe the provisions set forth in the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty.
"Russia will be pushing for these countries to commit to observing the treaty de facto at the first stage," Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Yakovenko told a Tuesday news conference in Moscow. "We expect that later these countries will join the treaty de jure," he said.
Yakovenko repeated that as the four new NATO members are not parties to the CFE treaty, a gray area has been created in Europe where arms may be stockpiled without monitoring.
"We hope that this will not happen, but as a diplomat, I want to stress that we should rely on international agreements," he said.