WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE CFE? The treaty was signed on 19 November 1990, entitled the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (aka the CFE). It was signed between NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, including the Soviet Union. The treaty aimed to reduce the risk of military conflict by limiting the number of conventional weapons. The numbers of the weapons are set to build a balance and prevent surprise attacks on the parties of the signatories. Other than quantity limitations, the Open Skies Treaty embedded in the CFE, facilitated the parties to inspect the signing states by joint flights as far as they inform the receiving party about the airport to be used and the route to be followed 24 hours before the inspection. In this sense, an aircraft of the requesting country would fly through the designated route in the aerospace of the receiving country and take pictures of the informed area to see if there exists any violation for the declared weapons in terms of numbers. Click here to view the study.