Finnish President defends initiative on Baltic flight safety

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto on Thursday dismissed a claim that his initiative on aviation safety in the Baltic Sea region had baffled western leaders.

The denial came after Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported concerns over Finland's role in an initiative on the use of transponders in aviation in the region.

During a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in early July, Niinisto suggested talks could be arranged about installing flight transponders on military aircraft above the Baltic region.

The suggestion was said to aim at improving flight safety.

Russia accepted the suggestion, and brought it up again in early August when inviting some Baltic countries to discuss security issues.

Helsingin Sanomat reported on Sunday that some western countries had questioned the nature of the Finnish President's suggestion and its role in the Russian initiative.

The daily's senior analyst Kari Huhta noted that Niinisto's suggestion did not initially create anxiety among western leaders and was even welcomed at the NATO summit in Warsaw in early August.

But western country became increasingly concerned after Russia highlighted Niinisto's suggestion in regional security talks, wrote Huhta.

Helsingin Sanomat reported that NATO was preparing a joint response to the flight security issue, but it slowed down due to the European holiday season.

In Thursday's statement, Niinisto said that Finland had already had its stance on improving flight safety in 2015 and Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila had taken up the issue of transponders in June.

Niinisto emphasized that the suggestion did not surprise other NATO leaders during Warsaw Summit, and denied the allegations that western leaders questioned the initiative.

In an apparent response to the presidential statement, Helsingin Sanomat's editor-in-chief Kaius Niemi told Finnish News Agency STT late Thursday that "grounds still exist for the views the newspaper expressed". Endit