Russia has notified all the member states about its decision to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty six months after sending a notice, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
MOSCOW, June 18.
/TASS/. Russia will completely withdraw from the Treaty on Open Skies on
December 18, 2021, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.
"Russia has
notified all the member states about its decision to withdraw from the Open
Skies Treaty six months after sending a notice. Therefore, this will occur on
December 18, 2021," the statement says.
Following the federal
law "On the Denunciation of the Treaty on Open Skies by the Russian
Federation" that has entered into force and in compliance with the
established procedure, Moscow has sent notices to Hungary and Canada as the
document’s depository states and to the other member states through the
embassies in the corresponding capitals, the Foreign Ministry said.
"A request has
been sent to the depository states of the Treaty on Open Skies to immediately
inform all the member states of the corresponding notice and convene within the
shortest time possible stipulated in the Treaty (i.e. in 30 days) a conference
of the member states to examine the consequences of Russia’s exit," the
document reads.
The situation with
the Treaty on Open Skies shows that the attempts to achieve unilateral
advantages while ignoring Moscow’s interests and concerns hold no prospects,
the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.
"The history of
the Open Skies Treaty makes it possible to draw at least two conclusions.
Firstly, the attempts to secure unilateral advantages while ignoring Russia’s
interests and concerns are doomed to failure. Secondly, the intent that the
West’s ‘technical supremacy’ will make it possible to outstrip and marginalize
Russia is also failing," the statement says.
The Russian Foreign
Ministry has called on Western partners to realize that they will fail to
ensure their security without taking the security interests of Russia and its
allies into account.
"We will always
find an effective response. But it is still better to work constructively
together on strengthening European and global security, relying, in particular,
on the experience of the years-long fruitful cooperation of the states within
the framework of the Treaty on Open Skies," the statement reads.
Russia has done
everything for preserving the Treaty and it is the United States that bears
full responsibility for its collapse, the document says.
As the Russian Foreign
Ministry pointed out, the Americans actively favor transparency in the military
field "only in the cases when they expect to secure some advantages of
their own through it."
"However, when
it comes to openness measures regarding their own territory, they backtrack and
begin creating obstacles for the fulfillment of these accords, without thinking
either about European security or their allies’ concerns or the assessment of
their ability to honor agreements," the statement says.
Source: ITAR-TASS
19-06-2021
