Estonia and Lithuania officially informed the United Nations on Friday that they are withdrawing from the Ottawa Treaty against the use of landmines. The countries want to be able to use landmines as a defense against a possible Russian invasion.
Governments of the countries had announced the withdrawal from the treaty earlier this year. In May and June, the parliaments of Lithuania and Estonia voted in favor of the proposal to withdraw from the treaty.
The withdrawal is a result of the “security situation in the region,” Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said in a press release. According to him, Estonia’s security has deteriorated since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The Ottawa Treaty prohibits the use and production of anti-personnel mines. The use of other types of mines, such as anti-tank mines, is not restricted by the treaty. 165 countries have signed the treaty, but countries such as Russia, the US, China, and India are missing.
The decision should ensure that Estonia has more choice in how it defends itself against Russia. Estonia should not be restricted by treaties that Russia itself does not support, the Estonian government reasons.
Lithuania also wants to be able to take all necessary measures to defend the country. “Lithuania has no illusions: Putin’s Russia is the biggest long-term threat in Europe,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys writes on X.
High risk of civilian casualties
There is also criticism of leaving the treaty, due to the high risk of civilian casualties from the use of so-called anti-personnel landmines. The majority of landmine victims are civilians, human rights organizations emphasize.
It concerns more than 80 percent of the fatal victims. This is because mines often remain in place for many years after a war and it is expensive to locate and remove them. For example, countries such as Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina are still working to remove landmines from the Yugoslav war in the 1990s.
Burdrys emphasizes that Lithuania continues to take into account human rights and the protection of civilians. Estonia announces that it will continue with initiatives to render old landmines harmless. That is an obligation that is also stated in the Ottawa Treaty.
Estonia and Lithuania have not left the treaty immediately. That will happen, now that the UN has been officially informed, only in six months. That period has been agreed within the treaty for countries that withdraw.
Also Latvia, Poland and Finland are planning to withdraw from the treaty. But they have not yet announced their departure to the UN.
In recent weeks, the Polish and Finnish parliaments did agree to the departure. The Latvian parliamentarians had already approved their government’s proposal in April.