An emergency meeting is opening today in Vienna, Austria, to discuss the future of the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty. The four-day conference was called by Russia in May after President Vladimir Putin declared a moratorium on Russia's participation in the pact the previous month.

NATO's secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer urges swift ratification of the adapted Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty and stated that Moscow's threat to aim missiles at Europe in response to similar U.S. plans was "unhelpful and anachronistic."

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Wednesday that Russia will not seek to abandon the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty when a conference of treaty signatories is held next week in Vienna, Russian news agencies reported.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has addressed the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), amid increasing strains between Washington and Moscow. Just one week before, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, addressing that same forum, criticized the United States for allegedly threatening Europe's security.

Russia has requested an emergency conference to discuss the Conventional Forces In Europe (CFE) Treaty. The Foreign Ministry said that Russia has approached the Netherlands, the depositary of the treaty, with a request to call an emergency conference on June 12-15 in Vienna.

Russia's first deputy prime minister, Sergei Ivanov, has said that Russia will no longer inform Western partners of possible troop movements across its territory. Ivanov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that Russia would retain its moratorium on the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe until all NATO countries ratified a revised version of the pact.

At one level, President Vladimir Putin's announcement in his annual address to the nation on April 26 that Russia may suspend its compliance with the amended 1999 Treaty on Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) is nothing new, given that for the past two years, senior Russian diplomats have repeatedly threatened to withdraw from that treaty completely.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on April 26 announced the possibility that he would freeze his country's commitments under a key treaty limiting military buildup in Europe. In between words of praise for Russia's economic and political achievements, Putin used his annual state-of-the-nation address to level an unambiguous warning to the West.

NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer today confirmed Russia is suspending participation in a key arms-control treaty. Earlier in the day, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia would freeze its compliance with the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) because NATO members have not ratified the pact and are not abiding by its provisions.

NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer is seeking clarification of Russian President Vladimir Putin's call for a moratorium in Russia's compliance with the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty.

Incomplete fulfillment of the commitments undertaken by Moscow on the withdrawal of Russian military bases from Georgia and Moldova does not prevent NATO member states from ratifing the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), Russian President Vladimir Putin said while delivering an annual state of the nation address on April 26.