A GENERAL THAWING in East-West tensions may allow an agreement to be reached on a new international system for arms verification. The 'Open Skies' concept, proposed by US president George Bush on 12 May last year, would allow participating countries to make unarmed flights over the territory of other participating nations at short notice to observe their military activities.
The countries involved do not want to reveal to the other participants their own jealously guarded military surveillance technology, known as 'National Technical Means', so any technology used must be off-the-shelf sensing equipment.
The proposal for Open Skies was originally put forward by President Eisenhower at a summit meeting in 1955, but it was rejected. Last week, the foreign ministers of 23 NATO and Warsaw Pact countries met in Ottawa to discuss the proposal again. They decided unanimously in favour of pursuing Open Skies, and left behind them hundreds of diplomats, ...
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