With an all-important June 16 summit between 78-year-old President Joe Biden and 68-year-old President Vladimir Putin, the U.S. announced it would not re-join the 1992 Open Skies Treaty. Biden and his 58-year-old Secretary of State Tony Blinker have all but wrecked U.S.-Russian relations, demanding Feb. 2 that Putin release 44-year-old Russian dissident Alexi Navalny from a two-year-eight-month prison sentence. Biden and Blinken have accused Russia of meddling in U.S. presidential election and hacking U.S. software companies. All the White House accusations haven’t invited close relations between the two superpowers. Hope springs eternal that when the two leaders summit in Geneva June 16, there’s hope that they could find common ground. Re-committing to the Open Skies Treaty would have been a perfect opportunity for both leaders to break new ground.
Trump first decided to abandon the Open Skies treaty, citing examples of Russia violating the agreement by not allowing U.S. over-flights over former Soviet republics like Georgia and Kaliningrad, just south of Poland on Baltic Coast. Russia denies that it precluded U.S. surveillance planes, despite the U.S. Air Force claiming that Russia objected to surveillance flights. “The U.S. has made another political mistake, inflicting a new blow to the European security system,” said Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Rybakov, quoted in TASS, Russia’s semi-official news service. Former President Donald Trump already backed the U.S. out of the Dec 8, 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces [INF] Treaty signed in Washington by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mihail Gorbachev. Ending the Open Skies Treaty is yet another blow to U.S.-Russian military cooperation.
Biden and Blinken must look for common ground before they meet in Geneva with Putin, given the already shaky relations. Re-signing the Open Skies Treaty would have been a perfect opportunity to show some cooperation. Biden and Blinken have hammered Putin on his military buildup on the Ukrainian border, prompting a hostile response from 43-year-old Ukrainian President Zolodymyr Zelensky. Zelensky has been pushing for NATO membership, a red line for Putin, threatening to seize more Ukrainian territory in the southeast Donbass region. “We gave then a good chance, which they did not take. They continue circulating fabrications about Russia’s violations of this agreement, which is completely absurd,” Rybakov said. Rybakov would also like to see a common agenda for the June 16 summit that would get U.S.-Russian relations back on the right track.
Since taking office Biden and Blinken have been sparring with Putin, trading accusations and insults. Biden called Putin a “soulless killer,” all but killing U.S.-Russian relations. Putin wants the summit to show the world that the U.S., not Moscow, has been inhospitable when it comes to diplomacy. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said ending the Open Skies Treaty didn’t bode well for the upcoming summit. Re-starting the Open Skies Treaty would have allowed Russian surveillance flights on U.S. soil. Since Putin annexed the Crimean Peninsula March 1, 2014, Russia has been under punitive U.S. and EU sanctions, without any progress for reversing the decision. Back in January, the Russian parliament [Russian Duma] also asked that its name get removed from any continuation of the Open Skies Treaty. Rybakov said the U.S. refusal to consider re-start the Open Skies Treaty shows the extent of mistrust between the U.S. and Russia in a new Cold Wars atmosphere.
Biden and Putin will waste each other’s time if they can’t find something concrete on which to agree, or, more importantly, to sign onto a new treaty. It’s a waste of time to talk about cooperating on climate change when there’s far more relevant issues to discuss. Dealing with Russia’s land-grab in the Arctic would be a good first start, keeping the region free of militarization . When it comes to China’s aggression in the South China Sea, grabbing shallow reefs to build military installations would be a constructive conversation that affects international navigation. Dealing with Ukraine would also be a constructive topic, as long as it doesn’t brand Moscow the aggressor. Cooperating on joint space exploration would also be good topic on which both sides could find some cooperation. Any discussion of Russian meddling in the West or hacking of U.S. software would be cournterproductive.
With less than three weeks to go before the Geneva summit, Blinken should work in overdrive trying to work with 71-year-old Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavvov to find some common ground. Biden and Blinken must avoid the same mistakes made when the U.S. delegation met with China March 18. Putin doesn’t want to hear about how alleged Russian hacking violates U.S. sovereignty. Biden and Blinken want to avoid anything too controversial when it comes to Ukraine, especially because any NATO involvement would be a red line for Putin. Putin wants NATO to stay out of his backyard in the Black Sea, preferring the U.S. accept its annexation of Crimea. Keeping NATO or the U.S. out of the Black Sea would reassure Putin that the U.S. aims to respect Moscow’s sovereignty. Finding common ground requires burying the hatchet for both countries.
