The Open Skies Treaty is a valuable transparency agreement, yet not the only one of its kind, Pavel Podvig, a senior researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), told Sputnik, adding that Moscow and Washington should think of other ways to cooperate and take confidence-building measures
WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th June, 2021) The Open Skies Treaty is a valuable transparency agreement, yet not the only one of its kind, Pavel Podvig, a senior researcher at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR), told Sputnik, adding that Moscow and Washington should think of other ways to cooperate and take confidence-building measures.
One of the highlights of the Wednesday summit between presidents Vladimir Putin and Joe Biden was the adoption of a joint statement on strategic stability. Putin stressed that both Moscow and Washington were responsible for world stability, as they are major nuclear superpowers "in terms of nuclear warheads, re-entry vehicles and delivery means, as well as the quality and the modernity." The two countries are set to begin consultations on the next steps to ensuring strategic stability, following the recent extension of the New START treaty, making analysist wonder what possible treaties - new, defunct, or abandoned - the nations may discuss, as well.
"The Open Skies Treaty was a valuable transparency agreement, but it was not the only one," Podvig said, when asked whether the declaration means that Russia and the US may return to the discussion of the Open Skies Treaty.
He said that it is unlikely that the US and Russia will be able to rejoin the deal.
"So they should think of other ways to cooperate and build transparency and confidence building mechanisms," he said.
Open Skies was signed in 1992 as one of the key confidence-building tools after the Cold War. It set a program for its 35 co-signatories to conduct unarmed aerial surveillance over the territory of the participants to openly collect information about each other's military activities. The aircraft participating in enforcing the treaty is required to attain specific standards to be allowed to conduct operations.
The US left the Open Skies Treaty last November, while Russia withdrew this June.
