Trump calls time on Open Skies Treaty

WASHINGTON — US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday he would withdraw the United States from the Open Skies Treaty with Russia, in his latest move to pull the country out of a major global treaty.

The US leader said Moscow had not stuck to its commitments under the 18-year-old pact, which was designed to improve transparency and confidence between the military superpowers.

“I think we have a very good relationship with Russia. But Russia didn’t adhere to the treaty. So until they adhere, we will pull out,” Trump told reporters at the White House.

Moscow quickly countered that the pullout would damage European security and harm the interests of US allies.

The RIA state news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko as saying that Russia had not violated the treaty and nothing prevented the continuation of talks on technical issues that Washington calls violations.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday that Moscow is awaiting clarifications from Washington on its pulling out of the treaty before forming a response.

“We did not receive official notifications or clarifications from our US partners and colleagues. This is an international treaty, it has an implementation format, it has obligations of the parties that are fixed,” Zakharova said. “In this regard, public statements, to put it mildly, are not enough for drawing conclusions regarding the intentions of the US side.”

The Open Skies Treaty, proposed by US then-president Dwight Eisenhower in 1955, was signed in 1992 and took effect in 2002.

The agreement between Russia, the US and 32 other nations permits one country’s military to conduct a certain number of surveillance flights over another each year on short notice.

The aircraft can survey the territory below, collecting information and pictures of military installations and activities.

The idea is that the more rival militaries know about each other, the less the chance of conflict between them.

But the sides also use the flights to examine the vulnerabilities of their opponents.

NATO allies and other countries like Ukraine had pressed Washington not to leave the treaty.

Ambassadors to NATO, whose members are also party to the treaty, have called an urgent meeting on Friday to assess the consequences of the move, which could affect European security.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Trump would formally notify the parties to the treaty on Friday of the US plans to withdraw, which will start a six-month countdown to pullout.

But he left the door open for the US to remain, stressing Moscow had to change its behavior.

“Effective six months from tomorrow, the United States will no longer be a party to the treaty,” Pompeo said in a statement.

The New York Times said Trump was also unhappy about a Russian flight over his golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey, three years ago.

New START talks loom

It will be the third important arms control pact that Trump has withdrawn from since coming to office in January 2017.

He has also dropped the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, and the 1988 Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia.

Along with the US exit from other major arms control treaties, this move reveals a disconcerting pattern of pointless hostility to treaties which will make future accords more difficult to negotiate.” Benjamin Friedman, researcher at the Defense Priorities think tank

In both cases Trump accused the other side of violating treaty requirements.

His decision deepens doubts about whether Washington will seek to extend the 2010 New START accord, which imposes the last remaining limits on US and Russian deployments of strategic nuclear arms to no more than 1,550 each. It expires in February.

Benjamin Friedman of the Defense Priorities think tank said the move would only accelerate competition between world powers.

“The Open Skies Treaty is not particularly important to US security, but it does build trust worth preserving,” he said in a statement.

“Along with the US exit from other major arms control treaties, this move reveals a disconcerting pattern of pointless hostility to treaties which will make future accords more difficult to negotiate.”

Daryl Kimball, head of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, said Trump’s decision to leave the treaty is “premature and irresponsible”.