WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made the following statement after the Trump administration announced the intention to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty on Thursday:

"Withdrawing from the Open Skies Treaty a disastrous national security decision by the Trump administration that has our enemies cheering. Arms control agreements were once a bulwark of Republican foreign policy under the Reagan and Bush Administrations. President Trump’s reflexive opposition to any type of international cooperation is leading our country back to an era where we had no system in place to prevent an unrestrained nuclear arms race. This decision will infuriate our European allies who depend on the treaty for their own security, leaving key strategic partners like Ukraine out to dry, and eliminates a key channel for transparency that would prevent us from stumbling into war with Russia. The more we retreat from the world, the more our power diminishes and allows other adversarial actors to fill the void,” said Murphy.

Last October, Murphy joined  a group of senators, led by U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) in supporting the Open Skies Treaty.

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