The lower house of the Polish Parliament adopted a law on the suspension of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe. In the vote held in the Sejm, which was broadcast on its website, 440 deputies took part - 435 were in favor of suspension, five were against.
Responding to questions from deputies as to why Poland was only suspending the CFE Treaty and not withdrawing from it, the country's Deputy Foreign Minister Wladyslaw Teofil Bartoszewski said that NATO allies did not agree to such actions.
Poland's Foreign Ministry said as early as last November that the republic "will take formal steps to suspend the CFE Treaty in a comprehensive manner - with respect to all its provisions and for an indefinite period of time." The Polish Foreign Ministry said that "this means that the Republic of Poland will be neither legally nor practically be obliged to fulfill the provisions of the CFE Treaty, including those concerning restrictions on Polish armed forces."
On Wednesday, the suspension of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe was approved by the Moldovan government.
The CFE Treaty was signed in 1990 by representatives of 16 NATO member states and six Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO) member states. It established group and individual ceilings for NATO and Warsaw Pact countries on five types of armaments and military equipment (AME) limited by the Treaty.
