NATO enlargement and the CFE Treaty

In an attempt to assuage Russia's concerns about NATO enlargement, the Alliance has presented Moscow with a series of radical proposals for revising the 1992 Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty. One of the key recommendations involves replacing the original bloc-to-bloc and zonal restrictions on the five categories of military hardware with national limits. With NATO poised to announce candidates for membership at its Madrid summit in July, a strategy to calm Russian fears about the military consequences of enlargement is becoming increasingly urgent. The process of revising the CFE Treaty, however, is unlikely to be completed before the Madrid summit.