Image: Vesa Vaarama / Yle

During his first official visit to Finland, Swedish defence minister Peter Hultqvist and his counterpart Carl Haglund said Friday that the two governments were considering joint air surveillance and enhanced information sharing about the status of both countries’ airspace.

The ministers said their objective is to anticipate the kinds of airspace incursions by Russian craft that both countries have experienced in recent times.

According to Haglund information sharing would help ensure that surveillance jets are better prepared to undertake reconnaissance flights if required.

The Finnish defence minister described recent cases in which Russian air planes veered into Finnish airspace as a nuisance and unacceptable.

During the month of August Finnish defence forces reported three confirmed cases of airspace incursions by Russian aircraft. Another suspected incident in late September was never confirmed by defence officials.