Finland’s Chief of Defence, Admiral Juhani Kaskeala, does not believe there are any restraints to Finland’s joint air surveillance effort with Sweden and Norway.
Since Norway does not have a national air surveillance system of its own, Sweden and Finland would have to join in the NATO system.
Kaskeala was speaking on Monday at the opening ceremony of a national defence course in Helsinki.
Kaskela does not see joining in the NATO air surveillance system as a problem. In addition to NATO countries, for example Austria and Switzerland already belong to the system.
In Kaskela’s view it is up to Sweden and Finland to decide to what extent they want to exchange airspace information with NATO.
Kaskela also presented other possible examples for Nordic defence cooperation.
At the Defence Forces, plans are being formulated for the joint use of military exercise and target practice areas as well as extending the maritime surveillance area further east.
According to Kaskeala, the advantages of joint maritime surveillance outweigh the drawbacks if other Baltic Sea countries are also included in the undertaking. Estonia and Russia have already expressed their interest in the intent.
Russia is also interested in supplying Finland with air traffic information from the air-traffic control station to be set up on the Suursaari island in the Gulf of Finland.
The purpose of the station is to prevent Russian aircraft from violating the airspaces of Finland and Estonia.
The cooperation proposals will be presented to Finnish political leaders later this spring.
