MOSCOW, May 29. /TASS/: The US administration’s policy to exit international treaties will be embraced by other countries, Valdai Discussion Club Research Director Fyodor Lukyanov told the first online session of the Primakov Readings forum centered on the post-COVID world.
"A treaty is a product of the current state of international relations, balance of power and interests. As long as this balance more or less corresponds to the one observed when these treaties were signed, they will be in effect," he said. "Then they cease to be active. Sometimes by collapse as a result of catastrophic events like wars, sometimes they die out as we are witnessing now."
According to the expert, the US initially "long and ardently imposed something of their own on other states" and then decided that they themselves do not need it and began looking for ways out of different treaties, leaving others "slightly confused as to what to do next with that." "And most importantly, the ideology that dominates the US now and that will, unfortunately, slowly spread further is that there is no need in these treaties as they constrain, while the biggest virtue and advantage is flexibility in this unclear and incomplete bipolarity," Lukyanov underlined, meaning the confrontation between the US and China.
According to the expert, the existing system of international treaties and agreements will not survive any way. "What should be guarded with our lives and maintained until the very last possible moment is the UN, of course, with its part relating to the UN Security Council and veto. Because this is the greatest achievement of political thought, substitute to big war," Lukyanov concluded.
US President Donald Trump on May 21 announced the decision to quit the Treaty on Open Skies, that allowed participants to fly over any territories of its signatories to supervise the military activity. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo clarified that the decision enters into force in six months, starting from May 22. Giving the reasoning behind this decision, the US side cited alleged numerous violations committed by Russia, while Moscow rejects these accusations and lays counterclaims. Earlier, Washington abandoned the INF Treaty and the Iranian nuclear deal.
