Treaty of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe

November 9, 2023

NATO recently announced the formal suspension of the treaty of Conventional Armed Forces in Europe in response to Russia’s pullout from the treaty.
NATO said that “a situation whereby Allied State Parties abide by the Treaty, while Russia does not, would be unsustainable”.
Signed in 1990, just a year after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the CFE set constraints on conventional arms and equipment.
Its purpose was to stop Cold War rivals from building up forces that could be used in a swift assault.
It established limitations on conventional arms and equipment with the primary goal of preventing Cold War adversaries from amassing forces suitable for rapid attacks.
It set equal limits on the number of tanks, armored combat vehicles, heavy artillery, etc. that NATO and the Warsaw Treaty Organization could deploy between the Atlantic Ocean and Ural Mountains.