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SWEDEN AND FINLAND

Sweden and Finland will ‘complete journey into Nato together’

The prime ministers of Sweden and Finland have reiterated their countries' commitment to join the Nato security alliance together, despite the greater obstacles faced by Sweden in winning Turkey's acceptance.

Published: 28 October 2022 16:52 CEST
Sweden and Finland will 'complete journey into Nato together'
Finalnd's prime minister Sanna Marin and Sweden's prime minister Ulf Kristersson hold a joint press conference at the Villa Bjälbo in Helsingfors, Helsinki. Photo: Jonas Ekströmer/TT

“We will complete this journey together, and move in lockstep, just as we have the whole time,” Sweden’s new prime minister Ulf Kristersson said during a visit to his Finnish counterpart Sanna Marin in Helsinki. 

“It is extremely important for us that Finland and Sweden join Nato in lockstep, just as we have done in this process up until now,” Marin said after the two met at the Villa Bjälbo in the city. “Our membership is going to make the whole Alliance stronger.” 

During his visit, Kristersson also met Finland’s president Sauli Niinistö, who has also played an important role in bringing Sweden and Finland into the alliance. 

Finland’s prime minister Sanna Marin met her Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson at the Kesaranta prime minister official residence in Helsinki. Photo: Vesa Moilanen/Lehtikuva/AP/TT

The AFP newswire reported on Friday that Kristersson is expected to meet Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara on November 8th to discuss Sweden’s moves to fulfil the demands of the trilateral agreement the three countries struck in June. 

Turkey and Hungary are the only two of Nato’s 30 members who have not yet ratified Sweden and Finland’s entry to the security alliance. 

After the meeting, Kristersson thanked Marin for a productive meeting, saying that he looked forward to continued cooperation “on our mutual security”, as well as on “forests, climate, energy, and other issues which will determine Europe’s competitiveness”. 

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MILITARY

Sweden prepared to manage Nato land force in Finland

Sweden is willing to manage a future Nato land force in neighbouring Finland, which shares a border with Russia, the two newest members of the military alliance announced on Monday.

Published: 16 September 2024 13:42 CEST
Sweden prepared to manage Nato land force in Finland

The two Nordic nations dropped decades of military non-alignment and applied for Nato membership in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Finland became a member in 2023 and Sweden this year.

Nato said in July that a so-called Forward Land Forces (FLF) presence should be developed in Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometre (830-mile) border with Russia.

“This kind of military presence in a Nato country requires a framework nation which plays an important role in the implementation of the concept,” Finnish Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen told a press conference.

The countries said Finland had asked Sweden to manage the force.

“The Swedish government has the ambition to take the role as a framework nation for a forward land force in Finland,” Häkkänen’s Swedish counterpart Pål Jonson told reporters.

Jonson stressed the process was still in an “early stage” and details would be worked out inside Nato.

There would also be further consultations with the Swedish parliament, he said.

Häkkänen said details about the actual force would be clarified through planning with other Nato members, adding that the number of troops and their exact location had not yet been decided.

Nato says it currently has eight such forward presences, or “multinational battlegroups”, in Eastern Europe – in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.

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