The Open Skies Treaty seeks to increase confidence and transparency on military activities of states through information gathering from aerial imaging. The Treaty’s goals to promote openness in military activities make the Treaty one of the biggest arms control efforts of increasing trust throughout the globe. States are able to fly unarmed aerial observation flights over territories of states who have signed the Treaty. The imagery collected is comparable to commercial imagery.

Opened for Signature: 24 March 1992

Entry into force: 1 January 2002

Official Text: http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/open_skies/text

Status and Signatories: http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/open_skies

ACA Backgrounder: https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/openskies