Trump to withdraw from Open Skies arms control treaty

WASHINGTON • United States President Donald Trump has decided to withdraw from another major arms control accord, according to senior administration officials, and will inform Russia today that the US is pulling out of the Open Skies treaty, negotiated three decades ago to allow nations to fly over one another's territories with elaborate sensor equipment to assure they are not preparing for military action.

Mr Trump's decision will be viewed as more evidence that he may also be poised to exit the one major arms treaty remaining with Russia: New Start, which limits the US and Russia to 1,550 deployed nuclear missiles each. It expires weeks after the next US presidential inauguration.

US officials have long complained that Moscow was violating the Open Skies accord by not permitting flights over a city where it was believed Russia was deploying nuclear weapons that could reach Europe, as well as forbidding flights over major Russian military exercises.

And, in classified reports, the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies have contended that the Russians are using flights over the US to map out critical infrastructure that could be hit by cyber attacks.

But Mr Trump's decision is bound to further aggravate European allies, including those in Nato, who are also signatories to the treaty.

They will remain in the accord, but have warned that, with Washington's exit, Russia will almost certainly respond by cutting off their flights, too, which the allies use to monitor troop movements on their borders.

The decision marks the third time Mr Trump has renounced a major arms control treaty. Two years ago he abandoned the Iran nuclear accord. Last year he left the Intermediate Nuclear Forces treaty.

NYTIMES