The defence ministers of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland have recommended to their governments that they should leave the UN-backed Ottawa Convention, an international pact banning the use, production and proliferation of anti-personnel mines.
Before issuing the recommendation, the four countries had reportedly consulted with allies, particularly other NATO members.
In a joint statement on X on March 18, the four officials wrote that, since the convention came into force in 1999, the security situation in their region had fundamentally deteriorated with military threats to NATO States “bordering Russia and Belarus” having significantly increased.
It was therefore essential, they said, to evaluate all measures to strengthen the countries’ military capabilities. The signatories included defence ministers Hanno Pevkur (Estonia), Andris Spruds (Latvia), Dovile Sakaliene (Lithuania) and Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz (Poland).
“We believe that in the current security environment it is of paramount importance to provide our defence forces with flexibility and freedom of choice of potential use of new weapon systems and solutions to bolster the defence of the [NATO] Alliance’s vulnerable Eastern Flank,” the ministers wrote, before issuing their unanimous recommendation for withdrawal from the convention.
The Ottawa Convention, or Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction, has been signed by 165 countries as of March 2025.
Signatory states vowed to refrain from using or developing anti-personnel mines and ensure the destruction of existing stockpiles. It referred to mines designed to detonate in the presence of or contact with a person but did not include anti-vehicle mines.
All European Union member states have signed the treaty, while Russia, the US China, India and Pakistan are among those who have not.
Spruds said on the occasion of the statement that it was necessary to prepare for the possibility that Russia would continue to pose a threat to the region, regardless of how the war in Ukraine developed.
According to the Latvian defence ministry, the country could produce its own anti-personnel mines.
The ministers’ recommendation was criticised by international organisations including the Red Cross (ICRC). “The impact of these possible withdrawals from conventions by certain states would have very serious consequences for many civilians – in the very long term and even within these countries themselves,” an ICRC spokesman said.
Military experts, though, welcomed the recommendation. Kyiv-based security analyst Jimmy Rushton called it a “neccesary decision” despite there being “a lot of moralistic criticism from Western NGOs based in countries that do not border Russia”.
The final decision on whether to leave the Ottawa Convention will have to be taken by the four countries’ parliaments.
If the required laws are passed, all other signatory states, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres and the UN Security Council will be informed.
A withdrawal would then take effect six months after Guterres has been notified.
