Politics

17:23, 15.01.2008 | Russia

Russia and the U.S. will conduct this summer a joint Air Force exercise aimed at practicing interoperability in anti-terror operations, a Russian military official said on Monday

Despite disagreements on a number of global defense and threat assessment issues, the U.S. and Russia signed in December last year a memorandum on bilateral military cooperation and the interoperability of their respective Armed Forces for 2008, which envisions a number of joint exercises.

"According to the scenario of the exercise, Russian aircraft will attempt to intercept a passenger plane hijacked in Japan when it flies over Russia's Far East, and the U.S. Air Force will do the same when it reaches Alaska," said Lt. Gen. Valery Ivanov, chief of the Far Eastern Air Force and Air Defense Joint Command.

The general said the participants would focus on practicing interoperability of communications and command-and-control systems.