The United States officially withdrew from this Sunday. Open Skies Treaty, a multilateral agreement to ensure transparency in Armenia’s arms handling that played a key role in European security, accusing Russia of “perverting” the pact.
Six months after the ousted President Donald Trump announced his decision to terminate the treaty, the withdrawal of the United States became official this Sunday, the State Department confirmed is an announcement.
“The United States is no longer a party to the Open Skies Treaty,” the statement said, noting that the withdrawal process was expected to take exactly six months.
This agreement Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which has been in operation since 2002, allows its 34 member states to fly over any part of the territory of the other participants. take photos from the air, with the aim that your neighbors or rivals do not prepare for military attacks.
Trump ordered the conciliation process to be postponed, despite his objections to allies in Europe who fear that this decision will lead Russia to ban flights to its territory by the Baltic states, which are useful for monitoring the movement of troops.
The argument that the United States was withdrawing is that Russia is preventing it from observing its actions from the air.
Exercises do not allow flights to regions where Moscow is supposed to have nuclear weapons that can reach Europe, in particular Kaliningrad, nor to segregated Georgian Abkhazia, South Ossetia.
American intelligence believes that Russia can use its flights to the United States to detect the country’s infrastructure that may be vulnerable to cyberattacks, and that the United States’ withdrawal from the pact prevents such actions.
Ten EU countries, including Germany, France, Italy and Spain, promised in May to continue implementing the agreement, but Russia does not rule out that it may withdraw.
It is not clear if he will return to power with Biden.
Although Trump will have to cede power to US President-elect Biden in January, the Democrat will have no difficulty deciding whether to rejoin the United States, according to The Wall Street Journal.
A senior US official told the newspaper that the United States was taking steps to get rid of two OC-135B special equipment jets that the country uses for controlled flights.
“We have started to dismantle the equipment, other countries can come to buy it or just take it. They are very old and expensive. They no longer serve us,” said the official, who asked not to be identified.
The aircraft’s equipped cameras are expected to be delivered to European allies, and the new digital cameras the Pentagon planned to install on those aircraft will be transferred to other Air Force units.
Biden did not make clear that he wanted the United States to join the Open Skies Treaty, but he would likely have other arms control priorities, such as extending a new nuclear deal with Russia and trying to salvage a nuclear deal with Iran.
This is the third major arms control treaty that Trump has withdrawn from the United States after turning a blind eye to a nuclear deal with Iran and violating the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (INF) with Russia.
Source: Impulsse
