GENEVA (Reuters) – NATO members Poland, Finland and all three Baltic states have queued up over the past few weeks to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel landmines, in the face of what they say are growing military threats from Russia.
The moves threaten to reverse decades of campaigning by activists who say there should be a global ban on a weapon that blights huge swathes of territory and maims and kills civilians long after conflicts have abated.
Countries that quit the 1997 treaty – one of a series of international agreements concluded after the end of the Cold War to encourage global disarmament – will be able to start producing, using, stockpiling and transferring landmines once again.
COUNTRIES EXITING
All European countries bordering Russia have announced plans to quit the global treaty – apart from Norway which said this week that, for all the increased threats, it was important to maintain the stigma around the weapons.
Many have said they fear that, as U.S. President Donald Trump steps up pressure to the end thee war in Ukraine, Russia could use any pause to re-arm and target them instead.
Officials have suggested a withdrawal could also put them on more of an equal footing with Russia which – along with the United States, China, India and Israel – has not signed or ratified the treaty.
FUNDING CUTS
As countries quit the convention, global demining efforts are also backsliding amid “crippling” U.S. funding cuts, according to the International Campaign to Ban Landmines.
The U.S. government, which has halted some of its programmes under Trump’s foreign aid review, had been the single largest funder of mine action, providing more than $300 million a year or 40% of the total international support, according to the Landmine Monitor report in 2024.
A State Department official said in March it has restarted some global humanitarian demining programs and activities, without giving details. It has previously run major programmes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Laos.
CIVILIAN VICTIMS
Anti-personnel landmines are generally hidden in the ground and designed to detonate automatically when someone steps on them or passes nearby.
More than 80% of mine victims are civilians, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross.
The convention includes provisions to assist victims, many of whom have lost limbs and suffer from other permanent disabilities.
In October 2024, the U.N. reported that Ukraine had become the most mined country in the world. As of August 2024, it said there had been around 1,286 civilian victims of mines and explosive remnants.
STOCKPILES
Under the terms of the 1997 convention, countries were supposed to destroy all landmine stockpiles within four years, although not all have complied, according to the ICRC.
Poland now says it is seeking to resume production.
Some of the countries pulling out of the landmines treaty, including Lithuania, are also considering leaving the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions.
These are explosive weapons that release smaller submunitions over a vast area.
The United States, which had also not signed that convention, in 2023 transferred cluster munitions to Ukraine to help it defend itself against Russia.
(Reporting by Dave Graham, Emma Farge and Olivia Le Poidevin; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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