Latvia's parliament agrees to exit landmines treaty amid potential Russia threat

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

"The withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention will give our armed forces room for manoeuvre in the event of a military threat to use all possible means to defend our citizens," parliament foreign affairs committee chair Inara Murniece said in the statement.

Latvia is the first country to formally withdraw from the treaty but Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Finland, all of whom also border Russia, have said they plan to exit it due to the military threat from their much larger neighbour.

Russia isn't a member of the treaty and has used landmines in its invasion of Ukraine. Poland and the Baltic countries have been concerned that an end to the war in Ukraine could lead Russia to re-arm and target them instead. All four were under Moscow's dominion until the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.

Six months after informing other treaty members and the United Nations of their resignation, Latvia would be able to start amassing landmines, all of which it had destroyed after joining the convention in 2005.

(Reporting by Essi Lehto, editing by Anna Ringstrom and Bernadette Baum)