Russian military aircraft to fly over Croatia.
Russian military experts will carry out observation flights from the 24th to the 29th of April 2017 over the territory of Croatia and Slovenia under the Treaty on Open Skies, said Sergei Ryzhkov, head of the Nuclear Risk Reduction Centre of the Russian Ministry of Defence, reports Sputnik on April 24, 2017.
“Within the framework of implementation of the Treaty on Open Skies, Russia is planning to carry out observation flights on the Russian An-30B aircraft over the territory of Slovenia and Croatia,” said Ryzhkov, adding that the flights would be conducted from the airfields in Ljubljana and Zagreb along the coordinated routes with French experts on board, controlling the use of observation equipment and fulfilment of the treaty’s provisions.
The Treaty on Open Skies entered into force on the 1st of January 2002, and currently has 34 state parties. It establishes a program of unarmed aerial surveillance flights over the entire territory of its participants. The treaty is designed to enhance mutual understanding and confidence by giving all participants a direct role in gathering information about military forces and activities of concern to them.
Open Skies is one of the most wide-ranging international efforts promoting openness and transparency of military forces and activities to date. The treaty was signed as an initiative of former US President George H. W. Bush in 1989. Negotiated by the then-members of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, the agreement was signed in Helsinki, Finland, on the 24th of March 1992. This treaty is not related to civil-aviation open skies agreements.
