Washington exits another crucial arms pact

The United States said on Sunday that it officially withdrew from the Open Skies Treaty, in yet another move to abandon a major international arms control agreement.

“Today marks six months since the United States submitted our notice of withdrawal from the Treaty on Open Skies,” National Security Adviser Robert O’Brien said in a tweet.

The Trump administration submitted the notice of its decision to withdraw from the treaty in May, and the Sunday announcement marked the end of a six-month notification process.

The treaty, which became effective in 2002, allows its 34 State Parties, including the United States and Russia, to fly unarmed surveillance flights over each other’s territory to inspect military facilities.

The United States and Russia have blamed each other for noncompliance with the treaty. Washington and Moscow have each put a few limits on flights over their territories — Hawaii and some other US bases have been off-limits, as has Kaliningrad, among others, according to media reports.

China deeply regrets the United States’ insistence on withdrawing from the treaty regardless of opposition from the international community, a Foreign Ministry spokesperson said on Monday.

Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the US decision will damage mutual military trust and transparency between countries in the region, and it will not be conducive to regional security and stability.

The decision will negatively affect the international arms control and disarmament process, Zhao added.

“After withdrawing from the Treaty on Open Skies, the US side expects that its allies, on the one hand, will hinder Russian observation flights above US military facilities in Europe, and, on the other hand, share with Washington their photographic materials of Russian territory,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement. “Of course, this is unacceptable for Russia,” it added.