The aim is not to create the impression that Finland is alone during the NATO process. Cooperation has been intensified, in particular with the United States and the United Kingdom.
NATO membership With the application, there will be international troops on Finnish soil during the summer.
The key objective of increasing joint exercises is to strengthen not only the country’s defense capabilities but also their deterrent effect. In addition, the aim is to show that Finland has the support of partner countries through the membership application process, ie during the so-called gray period.
“After Finland decided to apply for NATO membership, and even before that, several key partner countries had shown their readiness to support Finland. Deepening international co-operation in training and exercises is the concretisation of this support, ”says a specialist from the National Defense Unit. Mika Varvikko from the Ministry of Defense.
Varvikko says that the focus of the planned exercises is in the summer months, but activities are planned for the rest of the year.
“In normal years, national and international training activities slow down during the summer. Now that the NATO membership process is underway, we wanted to avoid such a quiet period. The follow-up will, of course, be an assessment of the security situation and the progress of the NATO membership process. ”
The goal is that there would not be the slightest impression that Finland is alone during the application process.
The supplementary training plan was approved by the Ministry of Defense at the end of May, and as a result, twenty new, changed or partially renewed training events or frameworks have been entered in the calendar for this year.
“In terms of numbers, we go back to the period before the corona, when there were about 80 international training and exercise events every year,” says Varvikko.
However, he adds that the corona situation continues to cause uncertainty.
Specially Military cooperation with the United States and Britain has recently intensified. According to Varviko, these countries are, in addition to Sweden, the most important partners in the summer exercises, which are also carried out within the framework of the NATO and JEF (Joint Expeditionary Force) countries.
The exercises last for several weeks and include different stages of honing the interoperability between forces from different countries. Part of the training takes place in the territory of the partner countries, in the international maritime area or in the international airspace.
Finland does not have a very large number of international troops at the same time, and in the longest exercises, countries may also recycle their troops.
“It’s mostly about dozens of soldiers or company-sized units, that is, troops of about two hundred soldiers. As some of the exercises overlap, there may be several hundred foreign soldiers in the country at a time, ”says Varvikko.
Joint exercises however, they are unlikely to show much for those on summer vacation, for example. According to Varvikko, international forces may be encountered mainly in the vicinity of certain garrisons and training areas.
“Or when troops arrive or leave the country,” he adds.
With Turkey, which has thrown sticks at the wheel of the NATO process in Finland and Sweden, no exercises are currently known in Finland.
Conscripts and reservists also take part in training activities with international forces, in which case part of the communication takes place in English. Varvikko states that participating in the same exercises enables learning on both sides.
“The forces of the partner countries are very interested and impressed with the expertise of our conscripts and reservists. At the same time, we learn from each other here, ”says Varvikko.
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