Danish Inspectors to Conduct Observation Flight over Russia

MOSCOW, August 18 (RIA Novosti) — A military delegation from Denmark will conduct an observation flight over Russia under the Open Skies Treaty, an official at Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Sunday.

“From August 18 to 22, a mission from the Kingdom of Denmark will be conducting an observation flight aboard an An-30B over the territory of the Russian Federation under the Treaty on Open Skies," Ruslan Shishin, acting head of the ministry’s National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center, said.

He continued to say that, “in the course of the flight along the agreed route, Russian experts on board the observation aircraft will be ensuring the strict compliance of the flight configuration and observation equipment with the agreement.”

The Treaty on Open Skies was signed on March 24, 1992, in Helsinki and currently includes 34 countries. It came into force a decade later, in 2002.

The treaty established a regime of unarmed aerial observation flights over the entire territory of its participants. It is designed to enhance mutual understanding and confidence by giving all participants a direct role in gathering information about areas of concern to them.