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Russia has formally ended military cooperation agreements with Canada, France, and Portugal, marking the dissolution of partnerships dating back as far as the Soviet era.
Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin signed a decree Saturday terminating the three bilateral defense pacts, according to an announcement published on the Russian government's official website. The Foreign Ministry has been directed to notify the three countries of Moscow's decision.
The terminated agreements represent cooperation frameworks established across different political periods. The oldest, signed with Canada in Moscow on Nov. 20, 1989, predates the dissolution of the Soviet Union and was originally concluded between the USSR and the Canadian government. That agreement focused on military-line visits between the two nations.
The French cooperation agreement, signed in Moscow on February 4, 1994, addressed broader defense cooperation between the Russian Federation and France in the post-Soviet era. The most recent of the three, signed with Portugal on August 4, 2000, covered military cooperation between Moscow and Lisbon.
According to the decree, the Russian Foreign Ministry will handle the diplomatic notification process, formally informing Canadian, French, and Portuguese officials that Moscow is withdrawing from the agreements.
Military cooperation agreements typically establish frameworks for defense dialogue, personnel exchanges, joint training exercises, and information sharing between partner nations. Such bilateral pacts have been standard diplomatic tools for building military-to-military relationships and maintaining communication channels between armed forces.
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