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Romania Arms Control
In 1989 Romania viewed arms control as an element of
its
military doctrine and strategy that had the potential to
promote
its national security. It was the most vocal Eastern
European
proponent of a general military disengagement in Europe,
maintaining that general reductions in armaments and
military
activities by NATO and the Warsaw Pact would minimize the
threat of
a general European conflict. In 1985 Romania repeated its
previous
calls for the establishment of a nuclear and chemical
weapons-free
zone in the Balkans.
Romania adopted positions on arms control issues that
would
reduce the ability of its Warsaw Pact allies to intervene
in its
internal affairs. It urged that NATO and the Warsaw Pact
be
dissolved simultaneously. It called for the United States
and the
Soviet Union to cease maintaining bases or troops on the
territory
of allied countries, declaring that they constitute a
violation of
the host country's sovereignty and provide opportunities
for
external pressure on the host government.
Romania strongly advocated, and benefited from, the
Final Act
of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe
(CSCE),
signed in Helsinki in 1975. The confidence-building
measures
contained in the Final Act stipulate that when a signatory
nation
conducts large-scale maneuvers, involving 30,000 or more
troops
within 300 kilometers of international boundaries, it
should give
neighboring states prior notice of the size and geographic
area of
the exercise. This provision made it more difficult to use
maneuvers as a pretext to mobilize for an invasion of
another
country. Thus, the Helsinki Final Act complicated possible
Soviet
military action against Romania.
Data as of July 1989
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