Finland and Russia to step up cooperation on migrants - minister

HELSINKI (Reuters) - Finland and Russia have agreed to step up cooperation on their shared border, through which a growing number of migrants are entering the European Union, Finnish Interior Minister Petteri Orpo said on Wednesday.

The 833-mile (1,340 km) border marks an external limit of the EU's free-travel Schengen area, but Orpo said issues would be handled bilaterally between Finland and its giant neighbour. He did not specify what measures might be taken.

"Although Finland's eastern border is also the outer border of the Schengen area, both Finland and Russia want to solve the issue primarily on bilateral basis," Orpo said in a statement after meeting his Russian counterpart Vladimir Kolokoltsev.

Finland, a militarily neutral EU state, has long walked a fine line with Russia, its former ruler and important trade partner.

Last week, the government criticised Moscow for allowing increasing numbers of asylum seekers across their Arctic border. It also stressed that a common European solution must be found to the refugee crisis.

The Schengen zone comprises 26 states, most of which are also EU members, several of which have introduced temporary border checks as they struggle to control the flow of people arriving in the EU from the Middle East and elsewhere.

According to the Finnish border guard, about 400 asylum seekers have come from Russia to Finland this month, compared with about 700 in the whole of 2015.

Finnish Prime Minister Juha Sipila and Russian premier Dmitry Medvedev are due to discuss the migrant issue on Friday.

(Reporting by Tuomas Forsell; Editing by Jussi Rosendahl and Catherine Evans)