UN aviation assembly closes with rebuke of Russia over satellite navigation jamming

Montreal: The UN aviation agency's assembly concluded on Friday with delegates agreeing to condemn Russia for disturbances to critical satellite navigation systems that they say violate international rules.

Estonia and neighbour Finland have blamed Russia for jamming GPS navigation devices in the region's airspace, charges that Moscow has denied.

The region experienced two recent high-profile instances of GPS disturbances, including one involving a Spanish military jet with the country's defense minister onboard.

Most modern airliners have sensors and sources to determine their positioning in addition to GPS, meaning they can fly if there is interference. But European countries supported by the US and Canada earlier this week flagged safety concerns over global navigation satellite system (GNSS) radio frequency interference in the Baltic, Eastern and Northern European regions from Russian territory.

It was the International Civil Aviation Organization assembly's latest rebuke of Russia, which failed to win back its seat at ICAO's 36-member governing council over actions taken since Moscow's 2022 invasion and war against Ukraine.

The vote went against Russia, in part, due to deepening US pressure after President Donald Trump's rhetoric shifted in favor of Ukraine during a speech last week at the United Nations, one European diplomat told Reuters.

Russia was not immediately available for comment.

With no policing powers, ICAO uses consensus to set standards on everything from runways to seat belts.

ICAO's triennial assembly overwhelmingly backed a resolution condemning recurring global navigation interference originating from Russia and its "harmful impact on the safety and security of international civil aviation."

"We have several reports from our aircraft about GNSS interference, mostly jamming, but quite a bit of spoofing as well," Jari Pontinen, director general of civil aviation at Finland's Transport Agency, told Reuters in an earlier interview, referring to the practice of broadcasting fake GPS signals to deceive receivers, causing navigational errors and potential safety risks.

Pontinen added that such cases are not new to aviation but have been growing due to global conflicts.

"There has always been GNSS interference but not at the scale of what we have today," he said.

Representatives for Baltic countries including Latvia and Lithuania told the assembly on Monday that such incidents are getting worse.

The Lithuanian representative said his country records hundreds of GNSS interference incidents every week, at an intensity nearly 20 times higher than a year ago.