McCaul on Withdrawal from the Open Skies Treaty

Washington, D.C. – Congressman Michael McCaul (R-TX), Republican Leader on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the following statement on the decision to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty. 

“The Open Skies Treaty was designed to be a tool of peace – yet President Putin has used it as a tool of war. Russia has been in clear violation of the treaty for years, denying the United States and our allies overflights of Kaliningrad and the Georgia-Russia border. More troubling, it is  clear that Russia is misusing these flights to gather intelligence on critical U.S. military and civilian infrastructure in an effort to finetune its targeting of our country and threaten our national security. For those reasons, I support the President’s decision to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty. I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress as well as our allies and partners in Europe to ensure our collective security against Russian aggression.”

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