National Defense | Finland and the United States begin contract negotiations on defense cooperation

Finland and the United States will start contract negotiations on defense cooperation during the fall, says the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to the ministry, the agreement creates a framework and a legal basis for regular defense cooperation between Finland and the United States.

“The agreement defines the position of the US forces when they operate in the territory of Finland and includes, among other things, practical questions related to taxation, customs and the recognition of qualifications,” the ministry says in its press release.

The agreement would be a binding international agreement in nature. Parliament would decide on its final processing and approval in Finland. The negotiations are expected to last one to two years.

Negotiations there is no more precise timetable for the launch yet, says the special expert Tuomas Koskenniemi from the Ministry of Defence. There have been preliminary discussions on the matter between various ministries and agencies.

The foreign ministries of the countries lead the negotiations, but the rest of the state administration also participates in them very widely, Koskenniemi characterizes.

“The composition of the negotiating delegation has not been decided or locked in yet. In practice, it applies very widely to different administrative branches,” he says.

Speech the agreement started even before Finland decided at the end of the spring to apply for membership of the military alliance NATO. Finland and the United States agreed to deepen defense cooperation when the president Sauli Niinistö visited Washington at the beginning of March and met the President of the United States Joe Biden In the White House.

Niinistö said at the time that the deepening of the cooperation will take place “in a procedural manner, without identifying all the proposals for security and defense cooperation that will now be discussed”.

Now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says that starting the treaty negotiations is an indication of the US’s commitment to the security of Finland and Europe.

“Finland’s NATO membership does not reduce the importance of bilateral cooperation with the United States, but opens up new opportunities for it. With the agreement, Finland also has even better preparations for the implementation of our NATO membership”, says the ministry.