Mutual and Balanced Force Reductions (MBFR)

Talks between the United States and Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s aimed at achieving parity in the level of conventional forces stationed in Europe. The agreements made during the Mutual and Balanced Force Reduction (MBFR) negotiations were incorporated into the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE), which was signed in late 1999.

The first MBFR negotiations took place in Vienna, Austria in 1973. The United States proposed to withdraw 29,000 troops from Europe in return for Soviet withdrawal of 1,700 tanks and 68,000 troops. That would be followed by a reduction by both sides to a total of 900,000 troops apiece. The Warsaw Pact, led by the Soviet Union, proposed removing 20,000 soldiers apiece and freezing troop strengths at this reduced level. Afterward, each North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) and Warsaw Pact country would reduce its forces by 15%.

Differences in the two sides' negotiating positions stalled the talks, which would continue off and on with little progress for years. Warsaw Pact proposals were met by NATO counterproposals, and these in turn generated counter-counter proposals. Little of substance was accomplished until 1988, when Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev announced plans for a uni-lateral 500,000 troop reduction in Soviet forces and the withdrawal of 50,000 troops in Europe by 1990.

In 1989, NATO and the Warsaw Pact agreed to establish a new forum to negotiate troop reductions in Europe. The MBFR talks formally ended February 9 and were replaced by the Negotiation on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) on March 9. However, events overtook the parties with the unraveling of the Soviet empire in Eastern Europe in 1990. This led to questions about the future of the Warsaw Pact, which complicated the issue of troop levels. The forces of Warsaw Pact nations were included in Soviet troop levels, but the USSR could no longer be sure these countries would remain allies.

On November 19, 1990, 22 nations, including the United States and the USSR, signed the CFE, which initially covered only reductions in equipment. The issue of troop reductions was deferred for the time being. Under the treaty, both sides agreed to limit their forces in Europe to 20,000 tanks, 20,000 artillery pieces, 30,000 armored personnel carriers, 2,000 attack helicopters, and 6,800 combat aircraft apiece. Within a year of signing the treaty, however, the Soviet Union collapsed, replaced by an alliance of newly independent former Soviet republics called the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

The replacement of the USSR by the CIS once again delayed ratification of the treaty. Each of the nations in the CIS had its own armed forces, and each would now have to agree to troop and equipment limits. In addition, many of these new states had troops from the Russian republic in their territory (although only one of 12 Soviet republics, Russia, dominated the former Soviet Union). Many wanted to negotiate [Page 484]the removal of those troops at the same time as the reduction of equipment in Europe.

In July 1992, the Russian Parliament ratified the CFE, ensuring the cooperation of the largest and most militarily powerful former Soviet republic. Difficulties with verifying equipment reductions and differences over issues such as the application of the treaty to the former Soviet republics in Central Asia delayed final approval of the CFE for another seven years. The CFE was signed by 30 nations on November 19, 1999.

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