Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 4, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
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Estonia's parliament voted to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention on landmines due to threats from Russia, joining Latvia and Lithuania.
By Andrius Sytas
VILNIUS (Reuters) -The Estonian parliament on Wednesday voted in favour of withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention that bans the use of anti-personnel landmines amid concerns over the military threat posed by neighbouring Russia.
Eighty-one members of the 101 parliament supported the motion, its press office said.
All five European Union and NATO countries which border Russia – Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland and Finland - have said they plan to exit the international treaty due to the military threat from their much larger neighbour.
Russia is not a member of the Ottawa Convention and has used landmines in its invasion of Ukraine.
The Estonian vote follows those in Latvia and Lithuania, where parliaments have already approved the withdrawal.
The countries would be able to stockpile and lay landmines six months after informing other treaty members and the United Nations of their decision.
None of the five countries have done so yet.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams, who was awarded the distinction in 1997 in recognition of her work for the banning and clearing of anti-personnel mines, has criticised the decisions of Russia's neighbours.
"Landmines don't influence the outcome of a war... All you get is a mess afterwards that threatens your own population," she told the Guardian newspaper in April.
(Reporting by Andrius Sytas in Vilnius, editing by Terje Solsvik)
The Estonian parliament voted in favor of withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention that bans the use of anti-personnel landmines.
Countries bordering Russia, including Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, plan to exit the treaty due to military threats posed by Russia.
The countries would be able to stockpile and lay landmines six months after notifying other treaty members and the United Nations of their decision.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jody Williams criticized the decisions, stating that landmines do not influence the outcome of a war and create long-term dangers for the population.
Russia is not a member of the Ottawa Convention and has used landmines during its invasion of Ukraine.
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