The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has decided to remove the country from the Open Skies Treaty, of which more than thirty countries are part, in retaliation for the alleged breaches of the obligations signed by Russia.
The treaty, which also includes key allies of the EU and NATO, opens the door for member states to conduct observation flights – with unarmed aircraft – with the aim of obtaining first-hand information on suspicious military activities. from other countries, for the sake of transparency and mutual trust.
The agreement was negotiated three decades ago and, according to Washington, Moscow has breached it by not allowing surveillance over a city where it could be deploying nuclear weapons or about major military maneuvers. Instead, he believes that Russian forces are taking advantage of the treaty to obtain information on key North American infrastructure.
Trump had been evaluating the possible rupture for months and, according to administration sources quoted by ‘The New York Times’, the decision is made and will be formally transferred this Friday to Russia.
With this measure, there will already be three military agreements broken by Trump since his arrival at the White House, after removing the United States from the nuclear pact with Iran and from the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty signed with Russia.
Also in the air is the extension of the New START that contains a hypothetical arms race between the two former enemies of the Cold War, limiting the nuclear missiles that each power can have to 1,550. The validity of this text expires in 2021.
© 2020 Europa Press.
