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1 1 (November 23, 2020)

handle is hein.crs/govdcss0001 and id is 1 raw text is: ICongressional Res arch Servie The Open Skies Treaty: Background and Issues Updated November 23, 2020 The United States announced its intention to withdraw from the Treaty on Open Skies on May 22, 2020; this withdrawal took effect on November 22, 2020. The United States, Canada, and 22 European nations signed this treaty on March 24, 1992. It entered into force on January 1, 2002, and had 34 members before the U.S. withdrawal. The parties permit unarmed observation aircraft to fly over their entire territories to observe military forces and activities. The treaty is designed to increase transparency, build confidence, and encourage cooperation among European nations. The parties had conducted 1,500 observation flights through early October 2019. Some parties provide their own aircraft, but they can also join overflights on aircraft provided by other nations. Both the observing nation and observed nation have access to the data from each flight; other parties can purchase copies of the data, so all can share information collected during all flights. According to the State Department, the United States conducted nearly three times as many flights over Russia as Russia did over the United States. Further, the parties can invite flights over their territories in special circumstances, as Ukraine did in 2014, when Open Skies flights helped monitor activities along the Ukraine-Russian border. With the United States withdrawal from the Treaty, it will no longer participate in flights or share data collected by others. Russian officials have insisted that the remaining participantes not share data collected on Open Skies flights with the United States. They have also indicated that they expect to continue to fly over U.S. bases and facilities located on the territories of other treaty parties. Background President Eisenhower proposed an Open Skies agreement in 1955 to reduce the risk of war. Before satellites existed, aerial overflights provided information for both intelligence and confidence-building purposes. The Soviet Union rejected the proposal because it considered overflights equal to espionage and believed the United States had more to gain than it did. President George H. W. Bush revived the proposal in May 1989. By this time, both the United States and Soviet Union collected intelligence with satellites and remote sensors. As Europe emerged from the East-West divide of the Cold War, the United States supported increased transparency to reduce the chances of military confrontation. The Open Skies Treaty was one of three arms control arrangements-including the Vienna Document and the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE)-which could serve, as then-Secretary of State Baker noted, as the most direct path to greater predictability and reduced risk of inadvertent war. CRS INS GHT Prepared for Members and Comm:itees of Congress ------------------------------------------------------------------ ----------

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