On July 7, at 3:00 p.m. Moscow time (GMT +3), the Valdai Discussion Club held an online discussion based on the results of the Conference of signatories to the Treaty on Open Skies, titled “Open Skies Treaty and the United States’ Pullout.”
In May, 2020, Donald Trump announced the intention of the United States to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty (OST). That is, from November 22, the United States will cease to be party to this multilateral agreement that allows the observation aircraft of 34 participating states to conduct inspection flights of each other’s territory in order to build confidence and transparency.
What conclusions should the participating countries draw from the conference? How will the US withdrawal from the treaty affect relations with Russia? Should there be a new agreement acceptable to all global players? Participants of the expert discussion answered these and other questions.