NATO calls on Russia to return to treaty

BRUSSELS, Dec. 3 (UPI) -- Foreign ministers of NATO member countries called on Russia Wednesday to return to the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty.

In a joint statement, the ministers called the treaty a "landmark regime," the Novosti news agency reported.

Russia suspended its implementation of the treaty in December 2007 to protest U.S. plans to place a missile defense shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. Russian officials also say that the original treaty, signed in 1990, is no longer useful because it was signed before the breakup of the Soviet Union, the end of the Warsaw Pact and the expansion of NATO to include many former Soviet satellites.

The ministers said that Russia, by sending its troops into Georgia in August, "called into question" its commitment to the principles embedded in the treaty. Russia has said it would end its moratorium if NATO members ratify an updated version of the treaty.