"During the period between September 21 and 25, 2015, a joint mission of Canada and Spain is planning to carry out an observation flight over the territory of the Russian Federation, as a part of the international Open Skies Treaty, using a Canadian surveillance aircraft C-130J, " Ruslan Shishin said.
The Treaty on Open Skies was signed in March 1992 and became one of the major confidence-building measures in Europe after the Cold War. It entered into force on January 1, 2002, and currently has 34 States Parties, including the majority of the NATO countries, as well as Russia, and neutral countries such as Sweden and Finland.
The treaty allows participating countries to openly gather information on each other's military forces and activities.