Poland's Open Skies mission works over Baltic Fleet

06.08.2010 Within the framework of the Open Skies Treaty, in Aug 5-6 Poland performs observation flight over the Russian territory including Kaliningrad region where main basing sites of Baltic Fleet are located, and also over the territory of Belarus. Aerial photography is carried out by Ukrainian An-30B aircraft.

The major objectives of the Open Skies mission are promotion of openness and transparency; assistance in monitoring over fulfillment of actual or future arms control agreements; development of crisis prevention capabilities and crisis management under the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe and other appropriate international organizations. In future, open skies missions may be extended to new areas like environment protection.

Previously, similar Open Skies observation flights over Kaliningrad region were carried out by Germany in May 2001 and June 2003; Poland in Sept 2003; the U.S. on Sept 15, 2004; Poland on Sept 22, 2004; Norway in Apr 26-27, 2006; Sweden and Germany on May 4, 2006; Canada on May 17, 2006; Poland in Apr 12-13, 2008; Lithuania and the U.S. on May 23, 2008; Italy and the U.S. in July 10-12, 2008; Canada in May 14-16, 2008; Poland and the U.S. in Aug 20-21, 2008; Poland in Sept 17-18, 2008; Benelux in Nov 12-14, 2008; Poland in March 18-19, 2009; Sweden and the U.S. on May 7, 2009; France and Germany in June 17-18, 2009; Poland in July 29-30, 2009; Germany and Latvia in March 11-12, 2010; Norway in March 24-25, 2010; Poland in May 19-20, 2010.