Joint Consultative Group

The Joint Consultative Group, based in Vienna, was created to deal with questions relating to compliance with the provisions of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, which—together with the Vienna Document on confidence- and security-building measures and the Treaty on Open Skies — are considered part of the CSCE/OSCE’s peace process in the early 1990s.

Background

The history of the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) and the Joint Consultative Group goes back to 19 November 1990, when the Treaty, which also established the Group, was signed in Paris.

The Group was tasked to:

• resolve ambiguities and differences in the interpretation of the Treaty;
• consider measures that can enhance the Treaty's viability and effectiveness;
• resolve technical questions; and
• look into disputes that may arise from the Treaty's implementation.

Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe

The CFE Treaty has been regarded as a cornerstone of European stability and security, “from the Atlantic to the Urals”. It established comprehensive, legally binding limits on key categories of conventional military equipment. The Treaty was the product of five years of negotiation on force limitations conducted by NATO and Warsaw Pact States within the framework of the then-CSCE.

The Treaty entered into force on 9 November 1992, following the ratification by 30 states (the then-16 NATO members, eight former USSR republics with territory west of the Urals—Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russian Federation and Ukraine—and the six former Warsaw Pact members Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland and Romania. In 2023, the Russian Federation withdrew from the Treaty. In the period since then, a large number of JCG members have suspended the operation of the CFE.

The key goal of the Treaty was to establish a military balance between the two alliances at lower armaments levels. In the early years after ratification, the successful destruction of approximately 50,000 weapon systems and the creation of an unprecedented system of verification and transparency took place under the Treaty.