Iran Press/ America: According to US media, the Biden administration has decided not to rejoin the Open Skies agreement with Russia after concluding that Russian violations of the deal and failure to take action to return to compliance undermined the pact, the State Department said Thursday.
“Russia’s behavior, including its recent actions with respect to Ukraine, is not that of a partner committed to confidence-building,” a spokeswoman said.
A Russian Embassy spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Last year, Moscow called the US decision to exit from the treaty last year a deplorable development for European security that undermined trust-building efforts in the military sphere.
With the US decision not to rejoin Open Skies, only the Obama-era New Start nuclear weapons treaty remains in place to regulate strategic competition between the US and Russia.
The 1992 Open Skies treaty was intended to lower the risk of conflict by allowing the post-Soviet Russian state and Western nations to conduct unarmed reconnaissance flights over each other’s territory.
It came into force in 2002. The Trump administration notified the treaty’s members that the US intended to exit from the pact in May of last year. Thirty-four NATO, other European, and former Soviet countries are party to the treaty.
US officials at the time alleged that Moscow was violating the accord by limiting access for Western flights over Russia while using its own flights over the US to gather sensitive information on American infrastructure.
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Moscow emphasizes implementing Open Skies treaty despite US withdrawal
