Policy|Security policy
On its first visit, the North Atlantic Council will meet the entire central state leadership of Finland.
Defense League NATO’s highest decision-making body, the North Atlantic Council, will visit Finland on Monday and Tuesday.
This is a historic event, as the Council has never been to Finland before. The Council is chaired by the Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg.
The North Atlantic Council is composed of representatives from each NATO member country stationed in Brussels, who lead the permanent delegations at NATO’s political headquarters.
Council will come to Finland in its basic configuration, where all 30 NATO countries are represented at the ambassadorial level in Belgium. The State Department is told that the incoming party is quite large, but its exact size is differently revealed.
Republic president Sauli Niinistö will meet with Secretary-General Stoltenberg and Council representatives at the Presidential Palace on Monday. Niinistö and Stoltenberg have bilateral discussions. They will also hold a press conference on Monday.
In addition to the Defense League, NATO is also a political alliance. The significance of the visit and guests is indicated by the fact that during their visit the members of the Council meet not only the highest state leadership of Finland, ie the President of the Republic, but also the Prime Ministers, Foreign and Interior Ministers, the Speaker of Parliament and Foreign and Defense Committees.
The Council will also visit the European Center of Expertise for Combating Hybrid Threats and the Guard Jaeger Regiment in Santahamina, hosted by the Minister of Defense and the Commander of the Defense Forces.
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This is a historic event, as the Council has never been to Finland before.
Naton the highest decision-making body meets in the composition of ambassadors at least once a week. The organization makes all its decisions unanimously, so decisions are not voted on and it is always NATO’s collective position.
The level of composition of the NATO Council varies depending on the situation. The Council also meets annually in the composition of the Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs and sometimes at the level of Heads of State.
Finland’s relations with NATO are managed by its own Finnish Special Representation in Brussels. Its task is, among other things, to represent Finland in the meetings of various NATO committees and working groups.
From the Ministry of Foreign Affairs It is communicated that the visit of the NATO Council offers Finns the opportunity to promote a deeper understanding of the security situation in the Baltic Sea region and Northern Europe in NATO. Security issues in the Arctic are not always at the forefront in the minds of NATO’s southernmost members.
From Finland’s point of view, NATO’s visible presence in the Baltic Sea region is a factor that increases security. This is especially true when it comes to NATO’s role in the Baltic countries.
The visit of the NATO Council to Finland is considered to be a concrete indication of the intensified and intensifying partnership between Finland and NATO. Finland has been a NATO partner for peace since 1994. Since then, co-operation has increased considerably.
At NATO, Finland is described as a very active partner with whom exercises are organized and information is exchanged.
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The visit to the NATO Council is considered a concrete sign of a closer and intensifying partnership between Finland and NATO.
NATO Council the visit comes at an interesting time, as NATO is just updating its most important strategic guidance document, the Strategic Concept. The current guidance document dates from 2010. Since then, the security situation in Europe has deteriorated, the most prominent example being the occupation of Crimea in Russia and the situation in eastern Ukraine.
After the end of the Cold War, NATO’s interest was particularly focused on international crisis management. Russia’s aggressive foreign policy in recent years has restored the focus of the military alliance to NATO’s original basic mission, which is the collective defense of member states.
In the new NATO strategy to be published next year, common defense is believed to strengthen its role as NATO’s most important task.
From Finland The North Atlantic Council will continue its journey to Sweden. In Sweden, the Council will visit, among other things, the Swenex naval exercise organized by Sweden, which also includes eight vessels from the Finnish Navy.
Finland and Sweden are among the six countries participating in NATO’s so-called Enhanced Opportunities Partners.
These countries have a special position, as NATO works more closely and tailored with them than others.
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