Russia does not close the door of negotiations on participation in the Open Skies Treaty, there is still a chance for its preservation, and Moscow calls on the United States and its allies to reconsider their positions on the document, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 12th May, 2021) Russia does not close the door of negotiations on participation in the Open Skies Treaty, there is still a chance for its preservation, and Moscow calls on the United States and its allies to reconsider their positions on the document, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said.
"What is called the last call in the theater or the final call at the airport is my appeal to the Americans and their allies. There is still some time to reconsider the destructive position associated with the US withdrawal from this treaty," Ryabkov said.
If Moscow receives "a clear political signal that the decision has been made to return Washington to the treaty, I think that some adjustments are possible in that algorithm [of the Russian internal procedures for withdrawing from the treaty]," he noted.
"Honestly, there is no reason to hope for this. But nevertheless, we will fight for the survivability of the the treaty to the last. In any case, we did our best to preserve the treaty. In its current form, after the US left it, it lost its internal balance, it cannot be simply saved and we cannot just pretend that nothing happened," Ryabkov added.
"But we haven't slammed the door, it is still ajar. There is still a chance. If it is missed again, as the Americans have missed it in our relations in recent years, this will only demonstrate that they do not care about European security and are guided by misunderstood motives of exerting pressure or attempts to put pressure on Russia, which will not bring the effect the Americans are looking for," he stressed.
