The interior ministers of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Germany or their representatives have gathered for a meeting of the ministerial group on Baltic Sea Security on 17 and 18 June, according to a Finnish government statement. “The representatives of the countries will discuss drone-related threats in the region and joint measures to respond to these threats. The meeting is chaired by Minister of the Interior Mari Rantanen.”
“Because of our location, we have a particular responsibility for the security of Europe as a whole. Russia is the most serious security threat to Europe,” says Rantanen.
The topics on the agenda include the European Commission’s Action Plan on Drone and Counter Drone Security and its implementation, says the statement. “The Action Plan covers several branches of government and aims to complement national measures. Important themes for the Ministry of the Interior’s branch of government include law enforcement, critical infrastructure, external border control and hybrid threats. Many countries in the Baltic Sea region have already done a lot to respond to drone threats, for example through preparedness planning, cooperation between authorities, situational awareness and warning the population. In Finland, for example, the police, the Border Guard and the Defence Forces work very closely together to detect and counter drones.”
“However, drone-related incidents do not respect national borders. That is why we need to take joint action across the Baltic Sea countries to respond to these threats,” says Minister Rantanen.
Ukraine’s Minister of Internal Affairs will also attend the meeting via a video connection.
In its spring spending limits discussion, the Finnish Government agreed on strengthening the counter-drone capabilities. In the supplementary budget, EUR 50.2 million has been earmarked for development; of this total EUR 44 million will be allocated to the Finnish Border Guard and EUR 6.2 million to the police.
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