Donald Trump dismounts from the Marine One helicopter before leaving for Michigan on May 21, 2020. - Susan Walsh / AP / SIPA

The isolationist turn of the United States continues. Donald Trump announced Thursday the American withdrawal of the Open Skies treaty which allows to check the military movements and the arms limitation measures of the signatory countries, while leaving the door open to a renegotiation of the agreement. Last year, the United States had already withdrawn from a nuclear disarmament treaty signed with Moscow.

"Russia has not respected the treaty," said the American president. "So as long as they don't respect it, we will withdraw," said Donald Trump, confirming information from the New York Times . The American president answered the press in the gardens of the White House before his departure for Michigan, where he must visit a factory to show that the American economy is recovering after the break imposed by the coronavirus. He did not close the door to renegotiating this treaty signed by 35 countries. "I think what is going to happen is that we are going to withdraw and they are going to come back and ask to negotiate a deal," he said. "We have had very good relations recently with Russia."

"A blow" to European security, says Moscow

Moscow, for its part, denounced the "blow" to European security. "The withdrawal of the United States from this treaty means not only a blow to the foundation of European security but also to existing military security instruments and to the essential security interests of the United States' own allies," said the vice. -Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Alexandre Grouchko, quoted by the Russian agencies.

Pentagon spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman said that Russia "continually and blatantly violates its obligations under the Open Skies treaty and applies it in a manner that threatens the United States, as well as our allies and partners."

In a statement, the White House national security adviser Robert O'Brien stressed that the United States "would not remain signatories to international treaties that are violated by other parties and that are no longer in the interest of America ". He cited the two treaties from which the United States has recently withdrawn: the Iranian nuclear program treaty and the INF treaty on medium-range land missiles. "We are ready to negotiate with Russia and China on a new arms control framework which goes beyond the structures of the Cold War past and which makes it possible to guarantee the security of the world," concluded Brien.

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