The United States formally withdrew from the Open Skies Treaty on Sunday, six months after President Donald Trump announced the decision. The State Department has declared that the United States is no longer a party to the Open Skies Treaty, a decades-old treaty that allows member countries to conduct unannounced and unarmed reconnaissance flights over other countries to collect data on military forces. and occupations.
The treaty was first launched in 1955 by then-US President Dwight Eisenhower, proposing that the United States and the former Soviet Union would allow reconnaissance flights over each other’s territory. Moscow rejected the proposal, saying the initiative would be used for extensive espionage. George HW Bush revived the idea in 1989 and negotiations between NATO and the Warsaw Pact began in February 1990.
The treaty was finally signed in 1992, but entered into force on January 1, 2002. Currently, 34 states are party to the treaty, while Kyrgyzstan has signed but not ratified it. On May 21, 2020, the State Department said that the Trump administration could reconsider the withdrawal if Russia returns to “full compliance with the Treaty.”
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo had accused Russia of “flagrantly and continuously” violating the Treaty in various ways for years. The top US diplomat had said in a statement that Russia has been a serial violator of many of its arms control obligations and commitments and that the violations are not limited to the Open Skies Treaty.
Pompeo had claimed that instead of using the treaty as a mechanism to enhance confidence through military transparency, Russia weaponized the treaty by turning it into “a tool of intimidation and threat.” He accused the Kremlin of targeting critical infrastructure in the United States and Europe with “precision-guided conventional munitions” using Open Skies imagery.
“After careful consideration, including input from key Allies and partners, it has become very clear that it is no longer in the United States’ interest to remain a party to the Open Skies Treaty,” he added.
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