Russia, NATO to carry out mutual observation flights

MOSCOW - Russia and some of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member states will carry out mutual observation flights as part of their confidence-building efforts, a senior Russian defense official has said.

Russian experts will carry out the observation flights over the Czech Republic and Slovakia, while inspectors from Britain and Romania will fly over Russia under the Open Skies Treaty, Russian news agency Sputnik quoted Sergei Ryzhkov, head of Russian Defense Ministry's Nuclear Risk Reduction Center, as saying on Sunday.

"The observation flights will be carried out between May 30 to June 4, from the Pardubice Open Skies airfield (in Czech Republic) and Malacky (in Slovakia), with a maximum range of 800 and 1,170 kilometers, respectively," Ryzhkov said.

The Russian experts would carry out the flights using the Antonov AN-30B, with Czech and Slovak experts on board, to monitor the compliance with the treaty.

Britain and Romania will carry out an observation flight over Russian territory on a Romanian observation aircraft AN-30 between May 30 and June 3.

The flights are part of the confidence-building measures under the international Open Skies Treaty, which was signed in March 1992 and became one of the major confidence-building measures in Europe after the Cold War. The treaty entered into force on Jan 1, 2002, and currently has 34 state parties, including Russia and most NATO members.