Cctv news: America is going to retreat from the group again! This time, it is a treaty called "Open Skies". What is the Open Skies Treaty? Why did the United States retreat? Why did the American media say that this is a big gift for Russia?
US media: Trump has signed a document to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty.
On the 27th local time, The Wall Street Journal quoted American officials as saying that the Trump administration was starting to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty, which had existed for nearly 30 years, and the President himself had signed a document of intent to withdraw from the treaty. The US media believes that Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty has failed at present, the prospect of the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Reductions between the United States and Russia is uncertain, and the arms control system after the Cold War has suffered a serious impact, which will be made worse by withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty.
The concept of "open sky" was first born in the Cold War to dispel the fear of surprise attack.
Question 1: What is the Open Skies Treaty?
The so-called "open sky" concept can be traced back to the early Cold War: in order to save the US-Soviet camp from fear and surprise attack from the other side, then US President Eisenhower formally proposed in 1955 to allow the other side’s reconnaissance plane to fly in its own airspace.
At that time, US President EisenhowerWhat we want to do next is to alleviate the strong fear of possible surprise attack. Therefore, the United States and its allies propose that (the Soviet Union) can conduct reconnaissance on all North American areas north of the Rio Grande (the border between the United States and Mexico), including all European areas. In exchange, we also have the right to conduct reconnaissance on the Soviet Union.
"Open skies" planes can’t be armed. Russian military planes flew over Washington at low altitude.
However, the proposal of "open skies" failed to come true in the following decades; It was not until the late Cold War that Bush revived this idea during his term of office, trying to establish mutual trust between NATO and the Warsaw Pact countries at that time. In March 1992, the Treaty on Open Skies was signed in Helsinki, Finland, and came into force in 2002. At present, the Treaty has 34 member countries, including Canada and many European countries besides the United States and Russia.
According to the Open Skies Treaty, any member country can propose to another member country to send a reconnaissance plane to the airspace of the other country to carry out reconnaissance activities, provided that the application must be submitted 72 hours before the operation and the specific flight route must be submitted 24 hours before the operation, and the military personnel of the reconnaissance country must accompany the plane. Of course, the most important point is that the reconnaissance plane carrying out the open sky mission can only carry reconnaissance equipment and cannot carry any offensive weapons.
Because the relevant coordination work is carried out in secret, the open sky mission has caused a sensation several times over the years.
Host of CNN.Today, an unarmed Russian Air Force plane flew low over several important landmarks in the Washington area, including the Capitol, the Pentagon’s CIA headquarters in Virginia, and the Andrews base where the presidential plane "Air Force One" is located.
Russian reconnaissance plane flew over the mysterious area 51 this year.
According to US media reports, in August 2017, the Russian reconnaissance plane carrying out the open sky mission not only flew over Washington at low altitude, but also flew over the resort of the President of the United States — — Camp David and Trump’s private manor.
American CBS Channel 13 reporter (April 2019)A Russian plane flew over some of the most sensitive military facilities in the United States. Even American commercial planes were banned from flying over these places, but the Russian plane’s mission from northern California came with a peaceful purpose.
In April, 2019, another Russian reconnaissance plane flew over several strategic locations on the west coast of the United States, including vandenberg air force base, which was responsible for the US land-based intercontinental ballistic missile test, and the mysterious Area 51.
The second question: Why did the Trump administration withdraw from the contract?
One reason for the withdrawal of the United States: satellite performance improvement no longer requires reconnaissance aircraft.
Judging from the comprehensive reports of the US media, there is no consensus within the US government on whether to withdraw from the open skies treaty: there are three main reasons why hardline conservatives insist on withdrawing:
First of all, the "quitters" believe that with the continuous improvement of reconnaissance satellite technology, the United States no longer needs to send reconnaissance planes to obtain relevant information about Russian military facilities, and the funds, manpower and material resources invested should be used for other military projects with higher priority.
Expert Du WenlongThe treaty only has strategic communication value, and its military value is almost zero. You can’t see what you want to see, and you can’t see what you don’t want to see. The second reason for the withdrawal of the United States: Russia "sets limits" for US military reconnaissance flights.
Secondly, the United States accused Russia of repeatedly setting restrictions on the mission of the US reconnaissance plane: for example, the altitude and distance of American planes flying over Kaliningrad, a strategic place in Russia, were once restricted by Russia. However, according to the explanation given by the Russian Ministry of Defense, the reason why Russia did this was because there was a special plane of Russian leaders flying nearby at that time, and the restrictions were completely reasonable.
The third reason for the withdrawal of the United States: the Russian army upgraded its equipment to collect military intelligence "has the upper hand."
In addition, Russia’s new reconnaissance plane in recent years is also a major factor in the United States’ intention to withdraw from the contract.
Russian Red Star TV reporterThe Tu -214ON aircraft is the most advanced aircraft in the open sky mission at present. It is an aircraft that makes some people jealous, admired and puzzled. This aircraft is equipped with completely Russian-made systems: domestic cameras, domestic lenses and domestic computers.
The Tu -214ON reconnaissance plane has a range of 6,500 kilometers and a top speed of 850 kilometers per hour. The plane can fly at high altitude and low altitude, with a crew of 5 people. The plane is equipped with several sets of reconnaissance equipment, including infrared observation equipment, aerial camera, TV camera, vertical camera and remote camera, and also equipped with side-looking radar with a scanning range of 50 kilometers.
The "quitters" within the U.S. government believe that the United States has been using the relatively old OC-135B aircraft to perform the open sky mission for many years — — The lead in equipment gave Russia the upper hand in collecting American military intelligence.
Expert Du Wenlong:America’s "superior skill" belittles itself in order to find an excuse for withdrawing from the contract. The US media: withdrawing from the contract is equivalent to "giving a big gift to Putin".
Question 3: What impact will the withdrawal bring?
The New York Times recently wrote in an editorial, "The Open Skies Treaty has given the United States a pair of eyes over Russia, but now Trump wants to give up." Some members of Congress even described that withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty would be a great gift from the United States to Putin.
Expert Du Wenlong: Cut off important strategic communication channels, undermine strategic mutual trust between the United States and Russia, and the United States will take other measures to contain Russia after withdrawing from the treaty.
关于作者