The United States will no longer allow other countries ' reconnaissance aircraft to enter its territory. The State Department officially announced its withdrawal from the open skies Treaty.
"On may 22, 2020, the United States exercised its right to withdraw from the open skies Treaty by notifying the Treaty depositaries and all States parties of its decision to withdraw from the Treaty six months after the date of notification. Six months later, on November 22, 2020, the decision came into force, and the United States is no longer a state party to the open skies Treaty»,- said the Deputy representative of the state Department Cale brown in an official address.
American OC-135B reconnaissance aircraft operating under the open skies Treaty
Image source: defensenews.com
This decision was also confirmed by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. According to him, this decision was made due to the fact that Russia, contrary to the agreement, for many years applied a ban on flights (in particular, over the Kaliningrad region, as well as near the Russian-Georgian border).
The Treaty was signed on 24 March 1992 in Helsinki by representatives of 23 member States of the Organization for security and co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The official goal of the Treaty is " to promote confidence-building among States by improving mechanisms for monitoring military activities and compliance with existing arms control treaties». Today, 33 countries are parties to the Treaty. In accordance with the Treaty, the signatory States have assumed the obligation to provide the opportunity to perform observation flights (inspections) over their territory on the basis of a request within the established quotas. Flights are conducted on a notification basis. The agreement provides for " passive "(for the observed party) and" active " (for the observing party) annual quotas.
The United States has repeatedly talked about the possibility of its withdrawal from the Treaty, since it is useless for the country: spy satellites cope with the task of monitoring better than aircraft. At the same time, some us senators spoke negatively about this decision of the presidential administration.