Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia intend to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention banning the use and stockpiling of anti-personnel mines, the defense ministers of the four countries have announced in a joint statement.
The ministers said that since signing the treaty, “the security situation in our region has fundamentally deteriorated.”
Leaving the 1997 treaty, which has been ratified or acceded to by more than 160 nations but not by Russia, will allow Poland and the three Baltic countries to start stockpiling landmines again.
The ministers highlighted the threat posed by Russia since its invasion of Ukraine, describing the situation as an “unstable security environment” characterized by Moscow’s “threat to the Euro-Atlantic community.”
As a result, they said, it has become “essential to evaluate all measures to strengthen our deterrence and defense capabilities,” particularly on NATO’s “vulnerable eastern flank.”
“In light of these considerations, we—the ministers of defense of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland—unanimously recommend withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention,” the statement said.
Commenting on the decision, Estonia’s foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, described Russia as “an aggressor who is and remains the most serious security threat to not just Estonia but to all of Europe.”
“Russia is seriously violating its international obligations, using military aggression to achieve its goals, and has withdrawn from international agreements or is blatantly violating them,” Tsahkna was quoted on the ministry’s website as saying.
“Russia has not joined the Ottawa Convention... and it is not right that we are prohibiting ourselves from using weapons that Russia is prepared to use against us,” he said.
The four defense ministers added in a joint statement that their countries were still committed to upholding international humanitarian law, despite withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention.
