Finland and Sweden said on Friday they had scrambled fighter jets to intercept and identify Russian military aircraft in international airspace over the Gulf of Finland, in the first such joint operation by the two Nordic countries.
Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said the operation, which took place on Thursday, showed how the so-called Quick Reaction Alert cooperation could monitor and safeguard both countries’ airspace.
“It is a concrete expression of the readiness and trust we have built together – and an expression of the strength in the Nordic, Nordic-Baltic, and broader NATO cooperation in our part of the world,” Kristersson wrote in a post on social media.