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6.
Open Skies Treaty The Treaty on Open Skies was signed in Helsinki on 24 March 1992. Presently, 33 countries are parties to this Treaty. On January 1, 2002 the Treaty entered into force. The aim of the Treaty is to establish the "Open Skies" regime to conduct observation flights over territories of States Parties to develop openness and transparency, to facilitate control over the existing and future arms control agreements and to enhance potential for crisis prevention and settlement of crisis situations within the OSCE and other existing international organisations framework. The Treaty regulates requirements for observation aircraft, determines the set of sensors and their specifications, establishes organisational procedures for observation flights and procedures for processing data collected during these flights and also contains legal provisions necessary for legal support of the Open Skies regime, including provision of data for the third States Parties. Each State Party accepts and conducts observation flights in accordance with its quota, provided both passive and active quotas are equal. The Republic of Belarus participates in the Treaty as a member of the Belarus-Russia Group of States Parties. The issues of collaboration within the established group regarding arrangement and conduct of observation flights are regulated by the Intergovernmental Agreement and the Protocol of 1995. In order to solve issues related to the Treaty implementation, the Belarusian-Russian OS Intergovernmental Commission was formed within the Belarus-Russia Group of States Parties. From 1992 to 2001, States Parties conducted trial observation flights over each other's territories in the regime of provisional application. Throughout this period, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy conducted 4 trial observation flights over the territory of the Republic of Belarus. On invitations of States Parties, representatives of the Republic of Belarus took part in 22 observation flights. Upon the Treaty entry into force, the Decree of the President of the Republic of Belarus No.129 dated 25.03.2003 "On Measures to Implement the Open Skies Treaty" was adopted, to implement the Treaty. Since January 1, 2002 the Belarus-Russia Group of States Parties have conducted 13 observation flights with the participation of the Belarusian representatives over territories of Czech Republic, France, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Romania and the United Kingdom. In its turn, the Republic of Belarus has hosted 13 observation flights of France, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the USA, the USA/Slovakia, over its territory. The exchange of information and notifications of specified formats under the OS Treaty is carried out through diplomatic channels and the OSCE Communication Network. Issues of compliance and development of the Treaty provisions are discussed with the participation of the Belarusian delegation within the framework of the special body - Open Skies Consultative Commission ( OSCC) in Vienna. |
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