Page "Treaty on Open Skies" Paragraph 0

The Treaty on Open Skies entered into force on January 1, 2002, and currently has 34 States Parties.

It establishes a program of unarmed aerial surveillance flights over the entire territory of its participants.

The treaty is designed to enhance mutual understanding and confidence by giving all participants, regardless of size, a direct role in gathering information about military forces and activities of concern to them.

Open Skies is one of the most wide-ranging international efforts to date promoting openness and transparency of military forces and activities.

The concept of " mutual aerial observation " was initially proposed to Soviet Premier Nikolai Bulganin at the Geneva Conference of 1955 by President Dwight D. Eisenhower ; however, the Soviets promptly rejected the concept and it lay dormant for several years.

The treaty was eventually signed as an initiative of US president ( and former Director of Central Intelligence ) George H. W. Bush in 1989.

Negotiated by the then-members of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the agreement was signed in Helsinki, Finland, on March 24, 1992.