Russia, US sign deal to minimise risks in Syrian skies

Washington: The US and Russia on Tuesday put into practice new rules designed to minimise the risk of air collisions between military aircraft over Syria. A Russian defence official in Moscow said the “memorandum of understanding” suggests a potential for US-Russian counterterrorism cooperation, but US officials said it was a narrow arrangement that does not lessen Washington’s concern about the Russian military campaign.

There is no plan to establish zones of cooperation in the parallel air campaigns or to share intelligence or target information in Syria, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said.

The Pentagon has cited several instances when Russian aircraft came too close to US warplanes over Syria in recent weeks. More broadly, Washington has complained that instead of hitting Daesh fighters, Russian air strikes are mostly targeting rebel forces fighting the Syrian government. Russia also deployed ground troops and land-based weaponry, including multiple-launch rocket systems, in support of the Syrian government.

The arrangement announced Tuesday “does nothing to assuage our concerns about Russian military activities in Syria,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

Cook said General Lloyd Austin, commander of US Central Command, signed for the US side Tuesday. At a Pentagon news conference, Cook gave a broad description of the document but said the US had accepted a Russian request that the text be kept secret.

After several rounds of talks that began more than a week ago, the two sides agreed to a number of air safety protocols including “maintaining professional airmanship” and the use of specific aircraft communications frequencies, Cook said. They agreed to keep a “safe distance” between aircraft, Cook said, but he would not say whether specific distances were written into the memo.

The two sides also agreed to establish a “communication line on the ground” as a backup of military-to-military communication, Cook said, although he would not say whether this would be a telephone line or where it would be located. A US-Russia working group will be formed to deal with any implementation issues that arise, he added.

The discussions that led to the protocols “do not constitute US cooperation or support for Russia’s policy and actions in Syria,” Cook said. “In fact, far from it, we continue to believe that Russia’s strategy in Syria is counterproductive, and their support for the Al Assad regime will only make Syria’s civil war worse.” He was referring to Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, whom the US says is an illegitimate leader and must leave office.

The US has been bombing Daesh targets in Syria since September 2014” the Russian air campaign began less than one month ago.

In Moscow, Russian Deputy Defence Minister Anatoly Antonov said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies that signing the memorandum was a positive step that has “important practical meaning.”

“The memorandum contains a complex of rules and restrictions aimed at preventing incidents between Russian and US aircraft,” Antonov said, adding that Russian and US military officials will set up round-the-clock communications channels and “determine the mechanism of interaction, including mutual assistance in crisis situations.”

“The Americans have promised to get the agreed rules to all participants of the anti-IS coalition they lead, so that their pilots proceed from those agreements,” he said, referring to the US coalition that includes Australia, Bahrain, Canada, France, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the UAE.

Antonov added that the memorandum “shows a big potential for cooperation between Russia and the US, including in the fight against terrorism, which we are ready to expand and deepen.”