The United States has informed Russia it will not rejoin the Open Skies Treaty, which allowed unarmed surveillance flights over military sites of member countries.

U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told her Russian counterpart of the official decision on May 27.

“The United States regrets that the Treaty on Open Skies has been undermined by Russia’s violations,” a State Department spokesperson said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry confirmed it had been informed of the U.S. decision. The Trump administration withdrew from the arms-control and verification agreement in November, saying Moscow violated it.

The Biden administration had been reviewing possibly rejoining the treaty, but the notification to Russia on May 27 suggests the agreement is now officially over.

U.S. allies in Europe supported maintaining the treaty, which allows nations to collect information on one another’s military forces in order to increase transparency and build mutual confidence about intentions.

In order to stay in the agreement, Russia had unsuccessfully sought assurances that NATO members would not hand over data collected during observation flights over Russia to the United States.

Source – Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty