Estonian parliament votes to withdraw from landmines treaty

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By Andrius Sytas

VILNIUS (Reuters) -The Estonian parliament on Wednesday voted in favour of withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention that bans the use of anti-personnel landmines amid concerns over the military threat posed by neighbouring Russia.

Eighty-one members of the 101 parliament supported the motion, its press office said.

All five European Union and NATO countries which border Russia – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Finland – have said they plan to exit the international treaty due to the military threat from their much larger neighbour.

Russia is not a member of the Ottawa Convention and has used landmines in its invasion of Ukraine.

The Estonian vote follows those in Latvia and Lithuania, where parliaments have already approved the withdrawal.

The countries would be able to stockpile and lay landmines six months after informing other treaty members and the United Nations of their decision.

None of the five countries have done so yet.

Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, who was awarded the distinction in 1997 in recognition of her work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines, has criticised the decisions of Russia’s neighbours.

“Landmines don’t influence the outcome of a war… All you get is a mess afterwards that threatens your own population,” she told the Guardian newspaper in April.

(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, editing by Terje Solsvik)