WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 22nd May, 2020) The decision to leave the Open Skies Treaty should be read as a clear sign President Donald Trump intends to let the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START) die as well, former US State Department official Jim Jatras told Sputnik on Thursday.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, citing alleged Russian violations, said the US plans to submit its withdrawal notice on Friday and will officially exit the deal within 6 months. The Open Skies Treaty, which entered into force in 2002, allows for unarmed aerial surveillance flights over the territories of the 34 states party to the pact.
"It's a very broad signal that New START will not be renewed... [and] another step in systematically demolishing the framework of arms control globally, and especially between the US and Russia," Jatras, a former adviser to the Senate Republican Leadership said. "That is not yet certain, but it was looking unlikely to be extended and this certainly isn't a positive indication of US intent."
As with pulling out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty and the likely exit from New START - the US dismantling these arms control regimes is concerning to US allies.
"No, it's not good for them [allies], but like the US pullout from INF, it will perhaps generate some misgivings and then acquiescence," he warned.
Most of the other signatories to the Open Skies Treaty were now so dependent on the United States that they would simply follow whatever Washington ordered, Jatras remarked.
"Since, with some exceptions like Belarus and Kazakhstan, the other parties are mostly US satellites without full sovereignty, they'll accept what the hegemon tells them - and like it," he said.
Trump and his top officials, especially Secretary of State Mike Pompeo believed that�absolute US dominance was the only acceptable guarantor of the liberal international order and the only acceptable sign of stability, Jatras explained.
A Russian Foreign Ministry arms control official told Sputnik that Moscow has not yet received an official notification from Washington about its decision to leave the Open Skies Treaty, but a withdrawal would be regrettable if it happens.
