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No signs of other countries’ planning to quit Open Skies Treaty after US — senior diplomat

The US is to quit the treaty in November, in line with its earlier announced decision

MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/. There no immediate signs that other signatories to the Open Skies Treaty are going to follow the United States’ lead and quit the treaty, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told TASS on Monday after a videoconference on the treaty.

"So far, there are no signs [that other parties to the treaty are planning to withdraw from it] and, naturally, this is a positive thing," he said. "But neither do we see that US allies — and there were quite a lot of them among those who spoke today — are ready to help resolve the problems we are pointing to."

US President Donald Trump declared on May 21 that Washington was going to withdraw from the Treaty on Open Skies, which provides for inspection flights over member countries’ territories to monitor military activities. He motivated this step by Russia’s alleged violation of the treaty. US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo said in a written statement that the decision to withdraw from the treaty will come into effect in six months after May 22. Moscow denies the accusations saying it is committed to the treaty and puts forward counterclaims.

The Treaty on Open Skies was signed in March 1992 in Helsinki by 23 member nations of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The main purposes of the open skies regime are to develop transparency, render assistance in monitoring compliance with the existing or future arms control agreements and broaden possibilities for preventing crises and managing crisis situations. The treaty establishes a program of unarmed aerial surveillance flights over the entire territory of its participants. Now, the treaty has more than 30 signatory states. Russia ratified the Treaty on Open Skies on May 26, 2001.