NATO builds outpost for forces on border with Karelia and Murmansk region
NATO has begun construction of a new base in Finland, which will be an outpost and will be located north of the Russian border. It plans to send up to fifty officers there.
Two headquarters of the North Atlantic Alliance will be established in Finland. The first of them will be located in the south of the country, near the border with Russia, and will serve as the headquarters of NATO ground forces in the Nordic countries. And in the north of the country, a headquarters for ground operations for the alliance’s forward land forces, the FLF (Forward Land Forces), will be set up.
The new base will house up to fifty NATO officers
The new NATO base, which is being built relatively close to the Murmansk region and Karelia, will be located under Swedish command. This means that Stockholm will manage and staff most of the forces. In NATO, this is called a “framework nation.” This means a country other than the one where the base is located that provides military resources. Other members of the alliance can then contribute.
Stockholm plans to send 20 to 50 Swedish officers to the NATO base in Finland, sources told the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet (SvD). Their stay there is expected to be permanent. In addition, the base will include personnel from Finland, Norway and possibly the United States.
According to the publication, the reason for handing over control of the NATO base to Sweden is that “Finland should have more resources to focus on defending its southern borders.”
With the support of other countries, such as Sweden, Helsinki would also be better able to protect northern Finland. Then they would be able to protect both Helsinki and the more deserted northern part of the country.
Finland Builds Fence on Border with Russia
In 2022, Helsinki began designing a fence on the border with Russia. A year later, Finland completed a test section of the fence, about three kilometers long. The country’s border service said the construction of the fence near the Russian city of Svetogorsk “represents a modern era of border security,” and new monitoring technology will provide a complete picture of the situation on the border.
The government has allocated 139 million euros for the construction of the fence in 2023. According to preliminary calculations, this will be enough to build 70 kilometers of fencing.
The construction of a 200-kilometer-long fence on the Russian-Finnish border is planned to be completed in 2026. The Finnish parliament has decided to involve thousands of soldiers to guard the border. At the same time, Helsinki has decided to increase the height of the fence under construction. “The fence network will be half a meter higher (3.5 meters) and denser to increase the effectiveness of the barrier,” the country’s border service explained. In addition, the design and fastenings of the fence have been modernized, and it is also planned to improve the surveillance equipment on the border.
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