Statement: Trump’s Open Skies Withdrawal Makes Us All Less Safe
Last Updated on June 29, 2020.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday May 21, 2020
Contact: Michael Galant michael@winwithoutwar.org 203-260-4654
WASHINGTON — Win Without War Advocacy Director Erica Fein released the following statement on Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Treaty on Open Skies:
“Once again, Donald Trump’s belligerent approach to foreign policy has put us all at risk.
“The Open Skies Treaty is a key tool for building confidence and ensuring transparency between countries. It has long held both bipartisan support domestically and wide support from our allies abroad. It is exactly the type of global cooperation that we need to prevent distrust, misunderstandings, and conflict in the international arena. Trump’s decision to withdraw from this agreement — and to willfully violate the congressional mandate to inform legislators before beginning a withdrawal process — puts us further down the path of nuclear brinkmanship.
“Time and again, Trump has put nationalist bombast before actual security concerns: attacking multilateral institutions like the World Health Organization and the United Nations, engaging in futile trade wars, imposing deadly sanctions, and bringing us to the edge of all-out war with Iran.
“This administration’s record on nuclear weapons is particularly egregious. Before this, Trump had already unilaterally withdrawn from both the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action — the multilateral agreement to contain Iran’s nuclear program — and the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty — the treaty known for helping end the Cold War by signaling a new era of mutual security and understanding between the United States and the Soviet Union. This latest step sparks serious concern that the critical New START may be next on the chopping block.
“In contrast to Trump’s rhetoric, a retreat to isolationism does nothing to make the world safer. Quite the opposite: Trump’s antagonistic foreign policy brings us one step closer to nuclear disaster. In the face of global threats like nuclear proliferation, pandemics, and the climate crisis, what we need is global cooperation, not great power competition.”
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Win Without War is a diverse network of activists and national organizations working for progressive foreign policy in the United States.
May 21, 2020