May 28, 2021 12:26 PM | With information from DPA
15 minutes. The Government of the United States (USA) announced that it will not rejoin the agreement with Russia on mutual aerial surveillance, the so-called Open Skies Treaty, considering that Moscow failed to comply with its obligations for the pact, which former President Donald Trump threatened to abandon during his mandate.
“The US regrets that the Open Skies Treaty has been affected by the violations committed by Russia and, once the review of the treaty is concluded, it concludes that it has no intention of rejoining“So reads a statement from the State Department picked up by The New York Times.
The agreement, that it had been in force for about 30 years, emerged as a solution for the 2 countries to monitor their military movements. Specifically, through aerial sensors on restricted flights in certain areas of the other country.
In May 2020, Trump threatened withdrawal after Russia blocked American flights over cities suspected of harboring silos with missiles capable of reaching Europe. Even after making a control flight over the presidential residence of Mar-a-Lago in Florida.
Russian reaction
US allies long argued that the true value lay in the information they could gather from the planes. Now they fear losing access to opinions on the deployment of Russian troops and weapons, especially in places like Ukraine.. In the end, the US appeased interested countries by ensuring that they would provide them with the information they needed.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Riabkov lamented the decision made by the Joe Biden Administration, which at the time harshly criticized Trump for his disdain for the deal. He called it “another political error” and “a new blow to European security.”
“We have given them an opportunity that they have not taken advantage of and they continue to spread absurd fallacies about our alleged violations of the agreement. It is useless to insist on it. Anyone in Washington could see that this is a lie just by looking around a bit, but clearly no one cares the least bit about trying.“he told Russia’s TASS news agency.
