MOSCOW, May 18. /TASS/. The resumption of flights under the Treaty on Open Skies that have been suspended over the coronavirus pandemic will depend on the epidemiological situation, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told reporters on Tuesday.
After Russia completes internal procedures for denouncing the Open Skies Treaty and delivers a note to Canada and Hungary as the depository countries, Moscow will cease to be a party to the deal in six months’ time, the high-ranking diplomat said.
"Currently, the flights have been suspended over the Covid situation and this has been done upon an agreement between all the parties. I cannot say how the epidemiological situation will develop. But the quota [for the flights under the Open Skies Treaty] for the current year has been earlier agreed upon," Ryabkov said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin submitted a bill on denouncing the Open Skies Treaty to the State Duma on May 11. In practical terms, this document enables the participating countries to carry out flights over each other's territory to monitor military activity in accordance with the agreed quotas of monitoring missions.
The treaty establishes the rules of flights and a mechanism of verifying compliance with its provisions and contains the requirements the planes involved must meet, as well as restrictions on the structure and technical parameters of monitoring instruments.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on January 15 that Moscow was beginning internal procedures for the pullout from the Open Skies Treaty due to a lack of progress in eliminating obstacles to the further functioning of this treaty in new conditions, i.e. after the US withdrawal from it in November 2020. The US Department of State said in April that the US authorities had made no decision to return to the Open Skies Treaty yet.