U.S. exits Treaty on Open Skies
Trump adviser: Russia ‘flagrantly violated’ accord for years
The United States has formally withdrawn from the Treaty on Open Skies, a decades-old pact meant to reduce the chances of an accidental war by allowing mutual reconnaissance flights by parties to the 34-nation agreement.
The exit comes six months after President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw, saying Russia has been violating the pact.
“Today marks six months since the United States submitted our notice of withdrawal from the Treaty on Open Skies,” White House national security adviser Robert O’Brien said in a statement. “We are now no longer a party to this treaty that Russia flagrantly violated for years.”
O’Brien said Trump has “never ceased to put America first by withdrawing us from outdated treaties and agreements that have benefited our adversaries at the expense of our national security.”
“Today, pursuant to earlier notice provided, the United States withdrawal from the Treaty on Open Skies is now effective,” Secretary of State Mike Pompeo tweeted. “America is more secure because of it, as Russia remains in non-compliance with its obligations.”
Russia has denied violating the treaty and has chided the move as merely the latest abandonment by the Trump administration of major arms-control agreements.
The move risks sowing further divisions between the United States and European allies, some of which called on the administration to stay in the pact despite concerns about Russia.
The treaty, which was signed in 1992 and went into force in 2002, allows countries to fly over one another’s territory for unarmed reconnaissance flights. It was intended by its almost three dozen ratifiers to reduce the risk of war.
When he announced his intention to withdraw the U.S. from the treaty, Trump predicted that would get Russia to the negotiating table. “They’re going to want to make a deal,” he said.
SENATOR: MOVE RECKLESS
In a statement in May, Joe Biden, now the president-elect, said Trump had “doubled down on his short-sighted policy of going it alone and abandoning American leadership.”
“I supported the Open Skies Treaty as a Senator, because I understood that the United States and our allies would benefit from being able to observe — on short notice — what Russia and other countries in Europe were doing with their military forces,” his statement added.
Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, called the move reckless.
“The administration’s decision to abandon the treaty fits into a broader pattern of discarding arms control and non-proliferation agreements, raising deep concerns among our allies about our commitment to their security,” Menendez said in a statement.
Menendez said Russia would still be able to fly over American assets in Europe, and that Trump’s actions ran counter to U.S. law.
“I urge the incoming Biden administration to rejoin the treaty in a manner consistent with our constitutional structure, and I expect the new administration to consult early and often with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on this and other treaty matters,” he said.