Nato members Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia plan to withdraw from the Ottawa convention banning anti-personnel landmines due to the military threat from their neighbour Russia, the four countries said on Tuesday.
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Quitting the 1997 treaty, which has been ratified or acceded to by more than 160 nations, will allow Poland and the three Baltic countries to start stockpiling and using landmines again.
“Military threats to Nato member states bordering Russia and Belarus have significantly increased,” the countries’ defence ministers said in a joint statement.
“With this decision we are sending a clear message: our countries are prepared and can use every necessary measure to defend our security needs.”
The planned withdrawal was done to allow the effective protection of the region’s borders, Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene said in a separate statement. All four countries share borders with Russia. Poland, Lithuania and Latvia also share borders with Moscow’s ally Belarus.
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The announcement comes as Ukraine and Russia may be on the brink of concluding a 30-day ceasefire and may move towards a more permanent end to the three-year-old conflict sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.