PRESS RELEASE

21 February 1997

NATO's New Conventional Force Proposal

NATO has presented its "Basic Elements for Adaptation of the CFE Treaty" in Vienna. Under this proposal, reduction in forces apply only to the current 16 NATO Member States. After new members are admitted to the Alliance, the total of future aggregate national ceilings of ground Treaty-limited equipment (TLE) could exceed current ceilings.

The proposal does not:

• account for increases of TLE after enlargement
• commit NATO to air power reductions, or prevent increases
• commit NATO to control additional categories of weapons, and to control qualitative improvements in weapons types
• propose numerical force levels, even though NATO has had six years to consider this

The document contains the following points:

A Revised Structure for Limitations

• "...group structure will be abolished."
• there will be no increase in total numbers of treaty limited equipment (TLE)
• "Adaptation should establish a structure of Treaty-limited equipment ceilings comprised of:
  1. National Ceilings....
  2. Territorial Ceilings....Territorial ceilings in the three categories of ground equipment will be set at the total of national and stationed equipment permitted on the territory or territories of each State Party in the area of application...."

Setting National Ceilings "The Alliance is prepared to take significant steps in this regard. Specifically, the total of future aggregate national ceilings of ground TLE of its 16 members will be significantly less under the adapted Treaty than their current group ceiling." (emphasis added)

Meeting New Security Challenges "A State Party may exceed its territorial limits in order to receive, in accordance with its express consent, forces on its own territory: a) for purposes of a notified military exercise; or b) in response to a notified peacekeeping operation under a mandate from the UN or OSCE; or c) for temporary deployments."

"NATO's proposal preserves its overwhelming superiority and allows for 'temporary increases' such as in Chechnya. Europe still has thousands more tanks than existed at the outbreak of World War Two in 1939," said Daniel Plesch, Director of the British American Security Information Council, an independent group studying European security.

Further analysis from BASIC is forthcoming. Copies of the NATO document are available from BASIC.

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