Joint use of material and basic infrastructure like ports and airstrips, joint training and exercises and a joint understanding of the security situation prevailing in Finland, Sweden and the regions surroundings the Nordics: Finland’s Prime Minister Juha Sipilä says enhanced defence cooperation between Finland and Sweden will be very pragmatic in practice.
“Joint equipment acquisitions and the like, we already cooperate with the manufacturers, actually. Sharing the same situational awareness, training together and so on,” said Sipilä on Sunday in Turku during his regular radio interview for the Finnish press.
Sipilä said this enhanced cooperation does not however mean a step towards a common defence alliance.
“We seek no union or military alliance with this joint work,” he said. “But it will allow us to expand our capabilities considerably from where we are at present.”
Sipilä continued his security policy discussion Sunday afternoon when he attended a two-day foreign and security policy summit at President Sauli Niinistö’s summer residence in Naantali. Sipilä is scheduled to meet with his Swedish counterpart, Prime Minister Stefan Löfven during the summit to discuss the finer points of the Finns’ new security plan proposal.
Hand in hand towards NATO?
An assessment of the effects of Finland's possible NATO membership was submitted to Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini on 29 April 2016. It proposed that Finland and Sweden should decide about potential full NATO membership jointly.
“One of the most important conclusions of the assessment was that all decisions affect each other. Each country will make its own decisions, but the one will affect the other - and the region’s security environment as well,” Sipilä commented.
He says there is no need to worry that Sweden would join NATO without Finland, or vice versa.
“One of the first things we shook hands on when I met Stefan Löfven for the first time last summer is that we wouldn’t pull any surprises on each other when it came to these kinds of things,” he said.
Room to manoeuvre
The new security guidelines proposed by the government, which will be heard on the parliamentary floor on Tuesday, also make it possible for Finland to apply for full NATO membership more quickly. The 2011 report prohibited an application being sent within the parliamentary term, but the new plan once again adapts the same wording that was used in the preceding 2007 report.
Sipilä said the security situation on the Baltic Sea has changed rapidly, so it is a good thing that the country’s hands aren’t tied when it comes to a possible NATO bid. Even so, he said Finland’s stance towards the US-led military alliance remains unaltered.
“As we have seen, the situation has changed very quickly. Limiting our options for the next four years would not be good. We need room to manoeuvre in the security police debate,” he said.
The prime minister said the new report gives Finland the leeway to apply for full membership should the security environment become difficult. He hesitated to project what kind of scenario this would be, and promised a proper evaluation will certainly take place if it proves necessary.
“To describe it would be impossible. We have to prepare ourselves for any manner of scenarios, and be ready to reach the necessary conclusions.”
Fruitful dialogue with Russia
Along with the rest of the EU countries, Finland condemned Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its actions in eastern Ukraine. It also joined with its union colleagues in imposing sanctions on its eastern neighbour as a result. Sipilä highlighted that Finland must nevertheless strive to maintain good communications with Moscow.
He pointed to the successful negotiation of a solution to the asylum seeker issue on Finland’s Lapland border with Russia as an example of the positive results that can be had with open dialogue.
“Sanction negotiations will pick up again in the autumn. For example, European Council President Donald Tusk promised to visit Finland, and separate talks on Russia are scheduled for October at the Council,” Sipilä said.
