Open Skies: NATO to discuss future of treaty after US announces withdrawal

NATO envoys will discuss the future of the Open Skies treaty on Friday after President Donald Trump announced the US would quit the 35-nation pact, an official of the Western military alliance said. The treaty allows unarmed surveillance flights over member countries.

Senior officials in the Trump administration said on Thursday that Washington would formally pull out of Open Skies in six months. Washington cited alleged violations by Russia as a reason for the withdrawal, while Moscow denies all allegations, voicing its own accusations.

In a statement which was tweeted on Friday, German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer said that Berlin would continue to fulfill its obligations within the Treaty on Open Skies.

US allies in the NATO have pressed Washington not to leave the Open Skies pact, whose unarmed overflights are aimed at bolstering confidence and providing members forewarning of surprise military attacks. The US move also deepens doubts about whether Washington will seek to extend the 2010 New START treaty, which imposes the last remaining limits on US and Russian deployments of strategic nuclear arms to no more than 1,550 each, Reuters said.