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Russian envoy says breaking CFE treaty deadlock depends on NATO

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Ending the deadlock over the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty depends on NATO taking the right steps, Russia's envoy to the military alliance said on Wednesday.
BRUSSELS, January 30 (RIA Novosti) - Ending the deadlock over the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty depends on NATO taking the right steps, Russia's envoy to the military alliance said on Wednesday.

Russia imposed in December last year a unilateral moratorium on the CFE treaty and said it would resume its participation after North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries ratify the document.

"The Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty will come back into effect if our partners understand that the key to the treaty is in their hands, not in ours," Dmitry Rogozin said at his first Russia-NATO Council meeting of envoys.

"If everyone understands that standards for concluding treaties on arms reduction must be common for all sides, we will unblock this issue by the end of the year."

NATO countries "have enough time to ratify the adapted CFE treaty," the diplomat added.

The adapted version of the treaty, aimed at regulating the deployment of non-nuclear weapons on the continent, was signed on November 19, 1999, and has so far been ratified only by Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan.

NATO countries' refusal of the updated version of the Soviet-era CFE, has proved a major stumbling block in Russia-NATO relations.

Rogozin warned that "If the balance of powers changes in a way that could threaten our security, we as a sovereign and independent state could revise a number of other agreements, which are morally outdated and harm our security."

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