Several European countries will withdraw from the convention banning anti-personnel mines.

BerlinFaced with the Russian threat, Finland wants to rearm. That's why it will increase defense spending to 3% of GDP by 2029 and withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty, the international convention that prohibits the acquisition, production, stockpiling, and use of antipersonnel mines. Helsinki thus joins several European countries neighboring Russia that have opted to withdraw from this international treaty. Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania already announced this on March 18.

The Finnish government made the decision after realizing that "The security environment in Finland and Europe has changed radically.""Russia represents a long-term threat to Europe. This requires the government to take action," said Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, who argues that the country must continue to strengthen the defense "depending on the threats and needs." Orpo acknowledges that although Finland does not currently face an immediate military threat, withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention will allow it to prepare for changes in security "in a more versatile way."

Helsinki believes that anti-personnel mines will improve the capabilities of its military and strengthen the national defense capacity and the country's security, because "they allow the attacker's advance to be halted and casualties to be minimized for the defender," are easy to use, and can be manufactured quickly and in large quantities if necessary. In this sense, Orpo emphasized that the objectives of Finland's foreign and security policy are "to safeguard its independence and territorial integrity, avoid being involved in a military conflict, and guarantee the security and well-being of the Finnish people."

Finland, a NATO member since 2023, thus seeks better protect its eastern border, which borders RussiaThe country signed the Ottawa Convention in 2012, a decision that required it to remove thousands of antipersonnel mines scattered along the border with Russia during the Soviet era. Instead, Moscow has not signed the treaty and has used anti-personnel mines in the war of aggression against Ukraine..

NATO members Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania will also withdraw from the Ottawa Convention in the face of the Russian threat and will therefore be able to stockpile and use such weapons.

A consensus treaty

The convention banning antipersonnel mines entered into force in 1999, following a vigorous public awareness campaign in the 1990s. By early 2025, the treaty had been signed by 165 countries and ratified by 133, according to the United Nations. Governments not party to the convention include the United States, China, India, and Pakistan.

The Ottawa Treaty aimed to "end the suffering and death caused by anti-personnel mines, which kill or maim hundreds of people every week, mostly innocent and defenseless civilians, especially children, obstruct economic development and reconstruction, inhibit repatriation and prevent the spread of the virus. It adds that an anti-personnel mine is "any mine designed to explode by the presence, proximity or contact of a person, and which incapacitates, injures or kills one or more persons."

The countries that signed the convention agreed to "never, under any circumstances, use anti-personnel mines; develop, produce, acquire by any means or another, stockpile, retain or transfer to anyone, directly or indirectly, anti-personnel mines; "and destroy or secure all landmines." Mines and explosive remnants of war killed or injured at least 5,757 people in 2023, 84% of them civilians, in some 50 countries, according to the latest report from the Landmine Observatory.