INTERNATIONAL SEA SURVEILLANCE CO-OPERATION

New possible threats and the highly increasing volume of maritime traffic in Baltic Sea and its approaches increases the risks for collisions, oil disasters and insecurity. The need for multinational interagency maritime co-operation is evident. The result of co-operation is a shared maritime situational awareness of the Baltic Sea and approaches that help us improve maritime security, for example regarding emergencies at sea, border control, crime prevention and environmental protection.

During the last years, several other nations have started to show interest in cooperation. The Nordic Ministers based on this interest made a decision to start a wider sea surveillance co-operation for the Baltic Sea area and its approaches. The aim of the cooperation, with the working name SUCBAS (Sea Surveillance Co-operation Baltic Sea), is to establish a multinational, interagency exchange of sea surveillance information in the Baltic Sea and its approaches.

As a first step, a seminar co chaired by Finland and Sweden was conducted in Sweden last September with the scope to inform Baltic Sea nations and organisations about the existing cooperation between Finland and Sweden and to promote the enlarged Sea Surveillance co-operation in the Baltic Sea and its approaches.

The overall purpose of SUCBAS is to adapt and further develop a co-operation within the area of Sea Surveillance in the Baltic Sea and its approaches. The SUCBAS co-operation aims at strengthening and expanding the existing co-operation, thus emphasizing the multinational interagency aspect. The co-operation between the participants will be based upon the principle of consensus.

The practical aim of the co-operation is to develop a concept, a technical solution and procedures in order to be able to generate a robust and cost-effective system to share Sea Surveillance information. Information fed into the system will be a national responsibility, and as such owned by the contributing nation.

The sea surveillance co-operation shall be accomplished with such arrangements that make it possible to reveal threats and avoid incidents that might jeopardise the general maritime safety, security and environment. This co-operation requires capabilities to position and identify targets, further to pass on acquired information to the respective party in order to aid the recipient to take their required actions to minimize or stop the risks of incidents. This aim should be fulfilled by exchanging information with attributes between nations, thus assisting in compiling the national recognized maritime picture of each participating nation.

För Finlands försvarsministeriums del undertecknas avtalet av stabschefen för marinen, flottiljamiral Veli-Jukka Pennala. Övriga länder som undertecknar avtalet är Sverige, Danmark, Tyskland, Estland och Litauen. Även Norge, Polen och Lettland har visat sitt intresse.

Members of the press have a possibility to attend a press conference connected to Sea Surveillance Cooperation Baltic Sea. The conference will take place in the House of Estates in Helsinki on the 4th of March at 14.15 (local time). Those members of the press willing to participate are asked to contact Major Matti Virolainen (e-mail: matti.virolainen@mil.fi) or Commander Pasi Staff (e-mail: pasi.staff@mil.fi).

For information concerning the Sea Surveillance Co-operation between Countries around Baltic Sea and its approaches please contact Commander Pasi Staff (tel. +358405518469) from the Navy Command Finland.

För frågor om det svenska bidraget kontakta gärna Försvarsmaktens pressekreterare Philip Simon på 0733-26 03 12.