The Open Skies Treaty was signed on March 24, 1992 in Helsinki. The agreement, which was originally concluded by 23 member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, entered into force in January 2002.
The treaty gives its participants the right to observe each other’s military activities. During an inspection flight over the territory of another state, it is allowed to take photographs and videos of military objects in a resolution of no more than 30 centimeters, use side-looking radar stations, as well as infrared equipment.
Each state party to the treaty has a certain quota for the number of observation missions that it or representatives of another country carry out over its territory. The countries participating in the agreement have the right to freely exchange data obtained during inspections with each other.
To date, 34 states have ratified the treaty. On May 21, 2020, the United States announced that it would withdraw from the agreement in six months. Washington accused Russia of violating the treaty. In particular, our observers allegedly watched from the sky over President Trump and the “critical infrastructure” of the Americans.
Earlier, the United States made claims that our country does not allow foreign inspectors to fly at the borders with Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and also limits flights over the Kaliningrad region. Although the Open Skies Treaty prohibits observers from appearing in the border zones of countries that are not participating in the agreement.
The United States was also unhappy with the high intelligence capabilities of the new Russian Tu-214 inspection aircraft. Moscow has rejected all charges against the White House of violating the Open Skies Treaty. The United States has set conditions for Russia to remain in the agreement. The American ultimatum expires on November 22, 2020.
Europe regrets the decision of the United States to withdraw from the open skies treaty. Russia needs guarantees that the United States will then not be able to receive inspection flight data over our territory from NATO allies.