Robert Smith: “I rise in appreciation for the leadership of the chairman, the Senator from North Carolina, on this issue and as member…”

“I rise in appreciation for the leadership of the chairman, the Senator from North Carolina, on this issue and as member of his committee I rise in support of the ratification of the CFE Flank Agreement. The CFE Treaty has been remarkably successful in reducing the cold war arsenals of conventional weapons in Europe. To date well over 50,000 tanks, artillery pieces and aircraft have been destroyed or removed from Europe. This treaty serves as an important mechanism to continue balanced force reductions in Europe, to build confidence among European States, and to provide assurances that NATO expansion will in no way threaten Russia. In addition to the Europe-wide national ceilings on specific categories of military equipment, the CFE Treaty established a system of four zones inside the map of Europe with separate subceilings. The three central zones are nested and overlapping, the fourth zone is the flank zone. The flank zones include Russia's northern and southern military districts that, during the cold war, were areas of heightened tension with NATO. NATO has corresponding limits on its Northern and Southern Flanks. The CFE flank zones limit the amount of equipment a country is permitted to deploy in certain areas of its own territory.”