FORMER SOVIET STATES MIGHT JOIN OPEN SKIES TREATY AT ANY TIME

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| 20:57:43 | 14-06-2005 | Politics |

New nations are welcome to join the 2002 Open Skies Treaty — a
confidence-building agreement involving unarmed aerial observation
flights over the territories of its participants, according to an
updated State Department fact sheet.

The Open Skies Treaty, to which 34 nations are parties, ~Sis of
unlimited duration and open to accession by other states.~T Any
nation that signs the treaty agrees to open all of its territory
to overflights by other signatories. Nations who have most
recently joined the effort designed to promote the openness and
transparency of military activities include Finland, Sweden,
Latvia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, Estonia and
Lithuania. Kyrgyzstan has signed but not yet ratified the treaty.

States of the former Soviet Union who have yet to do so may accede at
any time, while other interested parties may apply to the Open Skies
Consultative Commission, based in Vienna, Austria, for a consensus
decision. An application by Cyprus is now before the commission.

Applications from other interested States are subject to a consensus
decision by the Open Skies Consultative Commission (OSCC), the
Vienna-based organization charged with facilitating implementation
of the Treaty, to which all States Parties belong.

The Open Skies regime covers the territory over which the State Party
exercises sovereignty, including — land, islands, and internal and
territorial waters. The Treaty specifies that the entire territory
of a State Party is open to observation. Observation flights may
only be restricted for reasons of flight safety; not for reasons of
national security.