Russia Starts Withdrawal From Open Skies Treaty Over Improper Implementation of Pact

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Russia Starts Withdrawal From Open Skies Treaty Over Improper Implementation of Pact

The day before, the Russian Arms Control Delegation in Vienna demanded that the remaining parties to the Open Skies Treaty guarantee the confidentiality of data received during observation flights.

Russia is launching procedures for withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty, the foreign ministry said on Friday.

Commenting on the move, the head of the Russian upper chamber’s international affairs committee, Konstantin Kosachev said that the blame for the termination of the treaty lies entirely with the United States and its NATO allies.

He qualified the move as “quite predictable,” stressing that the US was the first to withdraw from the treaty, which could still have been saved if NATO had a political will for that.

According to the Russian lawmaker, the US allies should have undertaken obligations not to give the US access to any information obtained through treaty implementation.

The Open Skies Treaty was signed in 1992 and became effective ten years later. It allows 34 participating countries to conduct unarmed observation flights over each other’s territories.

In May 2020, US President Donald Trump declared that Washington was pulling out of the treaty and would not rejoin it “until they [Russia] adhere.” The US completed the process of exiting the deal in late November.

Sourse: sputniknews.com

Russia Starts Withdrawal From Open Skies Treaty Over Improper Implementation of Pact

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