§ Harry CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what is the latest position in respect of the adapted Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty; which countries have signed and ratified it; when he expects it to come into force; and if he will make a statement. [187131]
§ Mr. MacShaneThe Adapted Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) was signed 1)} the following 30 States Party at the OSCE Summit in Istanbul on 19 November 1999; Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus. Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Kazakhstan, Luxembourg, Moldova, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic. Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom and the United States. Of those States Party only Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have ratified the Adapted CFE Treaty. The Russian Duma voted to ratify the Adapted CFE Treaty on 25 June 2004, but to date documents of ratification have not been submitted by the Russian Federation to the Treaty Depository (the Netherlands).
The Adapted CFE Treaty cannot come into force until all 30 signatories have ratified it. We, along with NATO allies, are fully committed to the entry into force of the Adapted CFE Treaty. But we will not ratify until the Russian Federation has met the commitments it made, when the Treaty was signed, concerning Russian armed forces in Georgia and Moldova. Once those commitments have been met we would hope for a speedy ratification and subsequent entry into force of the Adapted CFE Treaty.