... Swedish town of Haparanda and the bridge in Kemijärvi, as well as Highway 21, which stretches 459 km parallel to the Finnish-Swedish border from the Gulf of Bothnia to the northwestern edge of the country on the border with Norway.
Where exactly in Finland could NATO’s troops and command centre appear?
Antti Häkkänen
identified
two main criteria for the location of NATO’s future command centre and NATO troops: 1) quality transport connections and 2) ready infrastructure. The details of the discussions ...
The ICE alliance has more geopolitical and geostrategic rationale than economic
On July 11, 2024, on the margins of the NATO Summit in Washington, the US, Canada and Finland announced a new trilateral consortium—the Icebreaker Collaboration Effort, or ICE Pact—with an explicit intention to challenge Russia and China in icebreaker construction and deployment. It is expected that by the end of 2024 the three nations ...
... annually trains around 21000 conscripts that adds to the country’s wartime reserve of 280,000 soldiers. About 870,000 Finish people between the age of 17 and 60 are
liable
for service in case of emergency.
All this had though significantly added to NATO and Finland’s increased military capabilities, but it would simultaneously trigger Russia’s reciprocatory response in the entire North in due course. To counter balance NATO through numerical and strategic military strength, Russia would be bound to increase ...
... have joined, they cannot not pay whatever the price will turn out to be. In addition, there will be
much less de facto sovereign decision-making possible
—here de jure is irrelevant. And it was already very self-limited before they joined.
— As NATO members,
Finland and Sweden cannot but share the responsibility for nuclear weapons
—the deterrence and possible use of them by NATO. It’s also obvious that NATO vessels may bring nuclear weapons into their ports, but they will not even ask; they know the ...
... capabilities. The North Atlantic Treaty does not have provisions on nuclear weapons nor does NATO have nuclear weapons of its own. Yet, as a NATO member, Finland needs to form an explicit nuclear weapons and nuclear disarmament policy.
In principle, Finland´s NATO membership does not restrict the exercise of policies aimed at nuclear disarmament and the prevention of nuclear war. On the contrary, nuclear disarmament is one of NATO´s long-term objectives. Also, as a member of a defensive alliance, Finland ...
... Institute for US and Canadian Studies, MGIMO University, as well as European and Swedish experts from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) and the European Leadership Network (ELN) discussed the implications of possible Sweden and Finland membership in NATO for global and European security, the risks of incidents in the Baltic Sea region and the possibilities to avoid them, security challenges in the Arctic region, and the prospects for multilateral cooperation in the Arctic in the context of NATO expansion ...
... “responsible ally”, while managing to solve some of Turkey’s internal problems at the expense of international players and leaving control over the implementation of those enshrined in the
Memorandum of Understanding
arrangements up to Ankara. Finland and Sweden have received a formal invitation to join NATO, but ratification by the member states’ national authorities will now be required, leaving significant room for manipulation by Turkey [
2
].
Another indication of the mitigation of the problem of internal divisions is the text of the new Strategic ...
... International Affairs Council (RIAC) hosted a round table discussion on Russia and NATO in the framework of Euro-Atlantic security. The participants discussed the contours of global and regional security in today's realities, due to the prospective NATO membership for Sweden and Finland.
The event was attended by Igor Ivanov, RIAC President; Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Director General; Ivan Timofeev, RIAC Director of Programs; Antti Helantera, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Finland in the Russian Federation; ...
Which trends seen in the West reflect Finland’s and Sweden’s possible entry into NATO
Much has been said and written about the likely consequences of Finland and Sweden joining NATO. A legion of analysts have already assessed the changing balance of power in the Baltic Sea, the new situation on the long Finnish-Russian land border as well as the possible implications of such NATO’s expansion for the Arctic. Experts are actively ...
... transferred the chairmanship to Finland, the emphasis was on improved connectivity, which links two of the priority areas that Finland highlighted — connectivity and education. As numerous human activities are increasingly being in place in the Arctic,... ... Arctic and the changes it progressively encounters, and possible mechanisms to deal with Arctic challenges.
What do you think of NATO and Russia's military build-up in the Arctic?
The Arctic, once inspired to be built as an international “zone of peace,...
