Estonia and Finland to make observation flights over Russia

BNS
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Photo: Tiina Kõrtsini / Õhtuleht

Estonia and Finland will perform joint observation flights above Russia from Aug 19-23 under the Open Skies Treaty.

Estonian and Finnish defense forces will make the flights with a Swedish non-military Saab-340 aircraft and Estonia will be the observation flights' leader country, spokespeople for the General Staff of the Estonian Defense Forces told BNS.

Four members of the Estonian and five members of the Finnish defense forces along with the crew of the Swedish aircraft will take part in the flight.

The flight will cover mainly the area behind the Estonian and Finnish borders and the maximum length of the route is 5,500 kilometers. The plane's camera will take pictures of interesting objects. The film will be developed in Finland in the presence of Estonian representatives and Estonia will get a copy of it.

Estonia last performed an observation flight in Russia's airspace in 2011. Russia last made an observation flight in Estonia's airspace in July this year.

The Open Skies Treaty is part of security and confidence building measures among member states of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the narrower purpose of which is to gather and make available information about military forces and facilities. It was signed in Helsinki in 1992 and entered into force in 2002. To date 33 OSCE countries including all member states of NATO have acceded to the treaty.

Estonia joined the treaty in 2005, undertaking to receive up to four observation flights annually.

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