The Polish Sejm has backed a bill to denounce the Ottawa Convention banning anti-personnel mines.
According to Polish media, at a meeting on the evening of 25 June, 413 MPs supported this decision, 15 were against it, and three abstained.
The bill will now go to the Senate for consideration.
Before the vote, Polish Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Vladislav Kosiniak-Kamysz stressed that the decision to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention was caused by the deteriorating security situation in the region and was a joint initiative of Poland, the Baltic States and Finland.
On 19 June, the Finnish Parliament adopted a similar decision.
This spring, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia and Poland announced plans to withdraw from the Ottawa Treaty, stating that “military threats to NATO countries bordering Russia and Belarus have significantly increased in recent years, so it is important to strengthen deterrence and defence capabilities of the countries”.
Withdrawing from the Ottawa Treaty, to which more than 160 nations have joined, would allow countries to build up a stockpile of anti-personnel mines. Among the 36 countries that have not signed the Ottawa Treaty are Russia, the US and China.
UN Secretary General António Guterres said he was “gravely concerned about recent announcements and steps taken by several member states to withdraw from the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.” He called for an “immediate halt” to such moves.