Such a decision jeopardizes the mechanism for maintaining global stability, said Congressional Senate member Jin Shaheen.
The U.S. administration must reconsider its dangerous decision to withdraw from the Treaty on Open Skies (PON), which threatens the mechanism for maintaining global stability. This opinion was expressed on Thursday on Twitter by Gene Shaheen (Democrat from New Hampshire), a member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Forces Affairs.
“President [U.S. Donald] Trump is rapidly moving on a path that will put us in a more dangerous position and force us to give up the U.S. leadership in the world”, – the senator said. “The dangerous and erroneous decision to withdraw from this international treaty has a devastating impact on our ability to conduct air surveillance of Russia, but it allows Russia to continue its surveillance flights over U.S. bases in Europe”, – Shakhin added.
The Trump administration, she said, “jeopardizes the arms control structure that has helped ensure stability in the world for decades. “I urge the president to reconsider this rash decision,” the senator concluded.
Trump announced Thursday Washington’s intention to withdraw from the DON, allowing participants to overfly each other’s territories to monitor military activities. The U.S. side cited Russia’s alleged treaty violations as the reason, while Moscow denies the allegations and makes counter accusations. For example, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed that Russia has a number of its own claims against the U.S. in connection with this treaty, which have already been expressed before. Vladimir Yermakov, Director of the Foreign Ministry’s Department on Non-Proliferation and Arms Control, stressed that Washington’s attempts to present the withdrawal from the agreement as a reaction to Russia’s violations are absolutely groundless.