Russian inspectors will go on an Open Skies mission in Germany onboard an Antonov An-30B observation aircraft, head of the National Nuclear Threat Reduction Center Sergei Ryzhkov told Interfax-AVN.
"The observation flight will be performed on June 23-27 from the Cologne-Bonn airport," Ryzhkov said.
A maximum distance of the flight is 1,300 kilometers.
The flight aims to build up openness and transparency in military activities of Open Skies Treaty member states and to bolster security through confidence building measures, he said.
The Russian observation aircraft will fly along the route coordinated with the host country and German specialists will stay aboard to control the use of monitoring instruments and the compliance with the treaty provisions.
This is the 18th Open Skies mission of the Russian Federation in 2014.
The Open Skies Treaty was adopted in 1992 and ratified by over 30 countries in 1995. It aims to monitor the fulfillment of existent and prospective arms control agreements and to broaden the OSCE capacity for crisis prevention and settlement. Aerial inspections verify armaments and location of troops declared by the member countries.
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