US Interested In Open Skies Treaty, Files Application For 21 Flights - Defense Ministry

Muhammad Irfan Published October 21, 2019 | 02:20 AM

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 21st October, 2019) The United States filed an application for conducting 21 observation flights over Russia in 2020 out of the 38 stipulated by the Open Skies Treaty, so the interest of the US military in maintaining the agreement is obvious, the head of Russian Defense Ministry's National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center, Sergei Ryzhkov, said.

"Of the total of 38 scheduled observation flights over Russia in 2020, the United States announced 21 flights. In 2017-2018, the United States conducted 16 observation flights over Russia," Ryzhkov told the official newspaper of the Russian Armed Forces, Krasnaya Zvezda (Red Star).

The treaty, which has 34 signatories, has been in force since January 2002 and allows unarmed surveillance flights over US, Russian and other territories.