Russia did everything possible to keep Open Skies Treaty alive, senator insists

MOSCOW, May 11. /TASS/. Russia has done everything it could to preserve the Treaty on Open Skies and its denunciation turned out to be a forced one, but this was the lone feasible step against the backdrop of the US withdrawal, Deputy Speaker of the Russian Federation Council (upper house of parliament) Konstantin Kosachev told TASS on Tuesday. "First and foremost, Russia has done its utmost to preserve the Treaty on Open Skies. It is being wrecked by the US with the passive position of its NATO allies. For us, this denunciation is a forced one, but the sole possible step amid the US withdrawal from the Treaty," Kosachev said. According to the senator, this translates to a de-facto refusal of other parties to the Treaty to comply with their commitments on the non-transfer of data to third countries, namely the US. On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted a bill to the State Duma on denouncing the Treaty on Open Skies. Open Skies Treaty pullout Russia’s Foreign Ministry announced on January 15 that Moscow had launched internal state procedures for exiting the Treaty on Open Skies. The Russian diplomatic agency attributed the move to the absence of progress in removing obstacles to the Treaty’s continuation under new conditions after the US had pulled out from the deal in November 2020. The US Department of State stated in April that Washington had still not decided on rejoining the Open Skies Treaty. The Treaty on Open Skies was signed in March 1992 in Helsinki initially by 27 members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), known as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (CSCE) before 1995. The main purposes of the deal were to foster transparency, render assistance in monitoring compliance with existing or future arms control agreements, broaden the 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. The treaty came into effect from January 1, 2002 after being ratified by 20 countries. Russia ratified the Treaty on Open Skies on May 26, 2001. Read more