Russia on Friday announced the withdrawal from Open Skies Treaty as the United States has already completed the exit formalities in November 2020 itself.
The outgoing United States President Donald Trump has announced the decision to withdraw from Open Skies Treaty which was signed in 2002 between the US and its allies on one side and Russia on the other side.
But the Trump has blamed Russia of violating the Open Skies Treaty and announced its withdrawal in May 2020 and completed the process by November 2020.
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on request from the European Union allies, Russia remained in the treaty till now. But Russia has decided to exit from the Open Skies Treaty as there lies no sanctity for it due to the US exit. The Russian foreign minister said that the procedural moves have already started by Moscow to withdraw from the pact.
Russia waited till date as the EU allies were requesting the US to reconsider its decision of exiting from the treaty. But it seems that the US has no such intentions of reconsidering the decision. Hence, Russia citing future security threats has announced its decision today.
What is this Open Skies Treaty?
The treaty was intended to build trust between Russia and the West by allowing the accord’s more than three dozen signatories to conduct reconnaissance flights over each other’s territories to collect information about military forces and activities.
What now…
This withdrawal will erode global security by making it more difficult for governments to interpret the intentions of other nations, particularly for the US and Russia.
Amid Russia-West tensions the exit by the major countries exit from the treaty will enhance more tensions in the region. The Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014 can be cited as one of the examples.