WARSAW, March 18 (Xinhua) -- Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia said Tuesday that they want to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention, an international treaty that bans the use of anti-personnel landmines.

Poland's Ministry of National Defense said this is a joint recommendation from the defense ministries of the four countries to their respective governments, rather than a finalized decision.

"We believe that in the current security environment it is paramount to provide our defence forces flexibility and freedom of choice to potentially use new weapons systems and solutions to bolster the defense of the Alliance's vulnerable Eastern Flank," it said.

The Ottawa Convention was signed in 1997 and went into force in 1999. Enditem

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