The United States, Canada and Norway will perform an observation flight over Russia from Monday to Friday within the international Open Skies Treaty, the head of Russian Defence Ministry’s National Nuclear Risk Reduction Centre, Sergei Ryzhkov, said in an interview.
“On August 26-30, as part of implementation of the international Open Skies Treaty the joint mission of Norway, Canada and the United States will conduct an observation flight over Russia on board of a Swedish observation plane Saab 340 that will take off from the Kubinka airfield,” Ryzhkov told the official newspaper of the Russian Armed Forces, Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star).
Russian experts will control the flight and the equipment used, he added.
During the same period, Russian observers will carry out an observation flight over France onboard a An-30B plane to a maximum distance of 2,078 kilometres (1,291 miles).
The Treaty on Open Skies was signed in 1992 to promote openness and transparency of military forces and activities in the post-Cold War period.
The treaty allows the member states to openly gather information on respective armed forces and their military activities during scheduled observation flights. The signatories include most of the NATO states, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and several others.