Russia to follow US out of Open up Skies treaty
16 January, 2021
Russia said on Friday that it would begin the task to withdraw from the Open up Skies treaty, a good pact which allows unarmed surveillance flights over member countries.
The United States still left the arms control and verification treaty in November, accusing Russia of breaching it, a charge Moscow denies.
Russia's foreign ministry said it was beginning "domestic types of procedures for Russia's withdrawal from the Open Skies treaty", citing "insufficient improvement" on maintaining the working of the post-Cold War defence accord following the US withdrawal.
Moscow had been seeking assurances from US allies who remain celebrations to the treaty that they might not share cleverness gained from their surveillance with Washington.
The treaty was designed 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 accumulate information about armed service forces and activities.
President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw the US from the Start Skies treaty in May this past year. Officials said the decision followed several cases of Russian refusal to adhere to the treaty.
In March, the US defence secretary at that time, Mark Esper, accused Moscow of breaking the treaty by forbidding American and various other foreign flights over the Baltic Sea city of Kaliningrad and near Georgia.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said the claims were groundless.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com