RETRACTED: White House defunds U.S. cooperation with Russia under the Treaty on Open Skies

Correction: The 2019 NDAA suspends upgrades to OC-135B Open Skies USAF observation aircraft and suspends Open Skies Consultative Commission work on infra-red or synthetic aperture radar sensors, while requiring some reports to Congress on the security and utility of the Open Skies Treaty, but it does not stop, suspend, or freeze the agreement. Meduza apologizes for the mistake.

~~By signing the~~ ~~fiscal year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act~~~~, Donald Trump agreed to defund U.S. cooperation with Russia under the Treaty on Open Skies. The agreement, which entered force in 2002, has 34 party states and allows unarmed aerial surveillance flights over participants’ countries. Under Section 1242 of the act, the U.S. federal government will suspend funding for cooperation with Moscow under this program, until the White House can present Congress with evidence that Russia is fulfilling its treaty terms.~~

~~Washington says Moscow has violated the agreement by exceeding the imagery limits set forth in the treaty. The United States also insists that its planes must be allowed access to the airspace over Kaliningrad, Chechnya, and Moscow, as well as “within 10 kilometers [6.2 miles] of its border with Georgia’s occupied territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia.”~~

• In September 2017, The Wall Street Journal first reported that U.S. officials were preparing new restrictions on Russian military flights over American territory, after Moscow imposed limits on U.S. flights over Kaliningrad, where Russia is believed to have deployed sophisticated weaponry.