The International Campaign to Ban Landmines (ICBL) has urged the United Kingdom and other international partners to intervene as Poland and Finland move towards renewed production and potential use of antipersonnel mines following their withdrawals from the Mine Ban Treaty.<\/p>\n
In an appeal dated 12 October 2026, the Geneva-based coalition said it had written to senior United Nations officials, humanitarian organisations and foreign ministers. The letters call on international leaders to engage with both governments to prevent renewed production, use and transfer of the weapons.<\/p>\n
The UK is explicitly among the countries whose foreign ministers received the appeal. Other recipients include Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway and Switzerland, alongside Zambia, which holds the current presidency of the Mine Ban Treaty. The direct UK connection is therefore a diplomatic appeal for intervention, rather than a reported change to British law or defence policy.<\/p>\n
The campaign is asking Poland and Finland to cancel their production plans, commit not to use or transfer antipersonnel mines, pursue militarily effective alternatives, maintain transparency about their intentions and ultimately return to the treaty. The ICBL says withdrawal from the agreement does not make production or deployment inevitable and argues that the governments can still reconsider their decisions.<\/p>\n
The appeal follows withdrawals by five European countries\u2014Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Finland and Poland\u2014since December 2025. Poland’s withdrawal took effect on 20 February 2026. According to the ICBL, its Armaments Agency initiated market consultations on 2 March for the acquisition of 14.7 million operational antipersonnel mines. Polish officials have indicated that mines could be deployed along the country’s eastern borders if a threat arose, while a senior defence official has suggested excess production could be supplied to allies, including Ukraine and the Baltic states.<\/p>\n
Finland’s withdrawal took effect on 10 January 2026. The country announced plans that month to acquire antipersonnel mines, manufacture them domestically and make the first new mines available in 2027. A senior Finnish Army officer has indicated that procurement could reach one million mines.<\/p>\n
The ICBL also raised concerns about possible European Union funding for mine purchases. It cited Latvia’s stated plan for a \u20ac28.3 million purchase under the EU’s SAFE programme, although Latvia has not specified the type of mines it intends to buy. The campaign argues that EU member states still bound by the Mine Ban Treaty must not assist activities prohibited by the agreement.<\/p>\n
The humanitarian consequences are central to the appeal. Citing Landmine Monitor 2025, the campaign said civilians accounted for more than 90 per cent of globally recorded casualties from mines and explosive remnants of war in 2024, while children represented 46 per cent of civilian casualties where age was recorded.<\/p>\n
For the UK, the immediate documented development is the request for diplomatic engagement. The source does not establish that the British government has agreed to specific measures or that the appeal has changed either country’s plans. The ICBL is calling for action before renewed production and potential transfers lead to wider proliferation of weapons that can remain dangerous long after fighting ends.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Campaigners warn that Europe\u2019s landmine ban faces a fresh test<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}