The Finnish Defence Forces will deepen its cooperation with Sweden in monitoring and safeguarding Finland’s territorial integrity.
The Swedish Visby-class corvette HSwMS Helsingborg will participate under the command of the Finnish Navy in monitoring and safeguarding Finland’s territorial integrity in week forty.
Close cooperation with our ally will strengthen the security of the Nordic Region and the entire alliance’s eastern flank and increase the ability of Finland and Sweden to operate together in all situations, in peacetime, in disturbances and in emergency conditions.
The Finnish and Swedish navies have been working closely together for a long time. The cooperation now being implemented in the monitoring and safeguarding of Finland’s territorial integrity is a new step towards further deepening cooperation.
Cooperation with the Swedish Navy will expand practical cooperation models for forming a maritime situational picture and safeguarding territorial integrity.
– We are now creating functional practices for joint activities. This lowers the threshold for conducting similar and other demanding tasks in the future whenever necessary,” says Commander of Naval Operations, Commodore Johan Tillande.
Sweden’s naval participation will enable the Navy’s own vessels to be directed to other missions. All activities are based on a shared maritime situational picture with Sweden.
– The Finnish and Swedish Naval Operations Centers exchange information continuously daily. In Finland’s territorial surveillance cooperation, Swedish vessels have the same powers under normal conditions as the Finnish vessels, including the use of military force. In all situations, the cooperation is led by a Finnish soldier who is a member of the regular personnel with national powers under normal conditions,” Tillander adds.