Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions

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Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions ( MBFR ; German mutual and balanced troop reductions ) were "negotiations on the mutual reduction of armed forces and armaments and related measures in Europe " that began on October 30, 1973 in the Hofburg in Vienna . The negotiations ran parallel to the Conference for Security and Cooperation in Europe in Helsinki, where the (particularly contentious) arms issues were excluded.

Negotiations begin

The basis for starting negotiations was a policy of détente between East and West in the early 1970s. The initiative was taken by NATO in 1968 (signal from Reykjavík), and in 1971 the Soviet head of state and party Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev also signaled readiness for talks (signal from Tbilisi).

Goal of the negotiations

The aim of the negotiations was an agreement on the disarmament and control of conventional weapons and armed forces in the territories of the NATO countries of the Federal Republic of Germany , the Netherlands , Belgium and Luxembourg and the Warsaw Pact countries of the GDR , ČSSR and the People's Republic of Poland . Representatives from the USA , Great Britain and Canada , who had major troops stationed on the European continent and in particular in West Germany, as well as the Soviet Union on the eastern side also took part in the direct talks . The guiding principle of the discussions was the principle of undiminished security for all involved. The military status quo in Central Europe should remain intact.

Problems of negotiations

The following points proved to be problematic during the negotiations:

  • The comparability of different weapon systems was the core problem of Central European armaments reduction. Conventional comparisons of forces compared the same weapon systems without considering the different functional relationships between the systems in the respective military strategies.
  • Little interest in conventional disarmament on both sides; the focus of the disarmament negotiations was on nuclear weapons .
  • NATO demanded an asymmetrical reduction in favor of the West from the Warsaw Pact (whoever has more has to disarm more). The East demanded disarmament in numbers.
  • The Warsaw Pact presented figures for its troop strengths, which differed widely from Western estimates and indicated that the armed forces were largely parity. There was a data dispute between the negotiating partners.

End of negotiations

On February 2, 1989, the MBFR negotiations were broken off after almost 16 years and were replaced by the negotiations on a Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) that began on March 9, 1989 . The MBFR negotiations at least had the effect of keeping the two power blocs talking, and thus contributed to building confidence despite differing positions.

literature

  • Robert Blackwill, Stephen Larrabee (eds.): Conventional Arms Control and East-West Security. A research volume from the Institute for East-West Security Studies . Clarendon Press, Oxford 1989. ISBN 0-19-827834-9 .
  • Heinz Kozac (Ed.): Conventional arms control in Europe. Documents and comparisons of strength . Institute for Basic Strategic Research at the National Defense Academy, Vienna 1989.
  • Reinhard Mutz (ed.): The Vienna negotiations on troop reductions in Central Europe (MBFR). Chronicle, glossary, documentation, bibliography 1973-1982 . Nomos, Baden-Baden 1983, ISBN 3-7890-0805-2 .
  • Stephan Tiedtke: Arms control from the Soviet point of view. The framework of the Soviet MBFR policy (= studies by the Hessian Foundation for Peace and Conflict Research). Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1980, ISBN 3-593-32602-7 .