New Nordic cooperation for accessible airspace
SWEDEN, July 10 - The Nordic countries are entering into a cooperation to promote access to Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden’s airspace for NATO’s air operations. On 9 July, a declaration of cooperation was signed by the countries’ defence ministers in connection with the NATO Summit in Washington DC.
A strong Nordic region enhances NATO’s deterrence and defence capabilities in Europe. It considerably increases NATO’s joint military capacity and facilitates additional military cooperation and integration efforts between the Nordic countries.
“By deepening cooperation on airspace in the Nordic region, military integration between our countries is strengthened, while the whole of NATO gains access to larger contiguous areas for deterrence, exercises and training activities in the air,” says Minister for Defence Pål Jonson, who signed the declaration of cooperation on behalf of Sweden.
Access to cross-border airspace is used for training and exercises with modern combat aircraft, and for aerial surveillance (‘air policing’). Access to cross-border and sufficiently large airspace volumes is also one of the key prerequisites for NATO’s air and missile defence.
