US mulls returning to Open Skies Treaty — Department of State
The United States quit the Open Skies Treaty on November 22, 2020
WASHINGTON, February 3. /TASS/. The new US administration is looking into the possibility of returning to the Open Skies Treaty, but believes that Russia is not fully compliant with the agreement, US Department of State Spokesperson Ned Price told reporters.
"We’re studying the issue. We’ll take a decision in due course," he said, when asked whether the US return to the treaty was possible.
"To the best of our knowledge, Russia is still not in full compliance with the treaty," he claimed.
Washington for several years accused Moscow of selective compliance with the Open Skies Treaty and of violating a number of clauses of that multilateral agreement. Russia came out with counterclaims regarding the US implementation of the treaty. The United States quit the Open Skies Treaty on November 22, 2020.
The Russian Foreign Ministry on January 15 issued a statement to the effect intra-state procedures for withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty had been launched. The Foreign Ministry said such a move was due to the lack of progress in eliminating obstructions for the further operation of the treaty in the new conditions following the US pullout. Once the procedures are over, a corresponding notification will be sent to the treaty’s depositaries.
Open Skies Treaty
According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, the Treaty on Open Skies, developed with Moscow’s active cooperation, is a major trust and security building measure. Together with the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and the Vienna Document 1999, the treaty effectively completed the creation of the trust building and transparency regime in the conventional forces field in the European-Atlantic space.
From a practical standpoint, the treaty allows the member states to conduct flights over any territory of each other to survey the military activity in compliance with the established quota. The treaty outlines flight procedures, treaty compliance verification mechanism, requirements for surveillance planes and restriction on composition and parameters of the surveillance hardware.