BERLIN, May 30. /TASS/. No one in the world needs a new arms race, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said in an exclusive interview with TASS.
"It was rather hard to achieve that goal [ensuring progress in the disarmament process] after the Cold War had ended," he said, when asked to comment on the United States’ withdrawal from the Treaty on Open Skies and other agreements.
Schroeder, who served as German Chancellor from 1998 to 2005, pointed out that "it required special efforts on the part of [US President Ronald] Reagan and [Soviet leader Mikhail] Gorbachev." "There was that famous meeting in Reykjavik [in 1986 - TASS], which led to progress in discussions on the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty," he noted. "A new arms race is what we don’t need at a time when we should be sorting economic issues out," Schroeder said, adding: "Who is going to benefit from it?"
US President Donald Trump announced on May 21 that Washington intended to withdraw from the Treaty on Open Skies, which allows member states to conduct surveillance flights over one another's territories in order to verify arms control agreements. US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo specified later that the withdrawal would take effect in six months’ time. The US authorities cited Russia’s alleged violations of the treaty to justify the decision. Moscow has repeatedly rejected such allegations.