The top diplomatic official of the European Union, Kaja Kallas, recalled this Sunday that Finland’s possible withdrawal from the Convention on the Ban of Antipersonnel Mines (known as the “Ottawa Treaty”) It is a decision that corresponds exclusively to the Finnish Government and Brussels has no say in the matter.
The Finnish Parliament is going to discuss a citizens’ initiative that proposes the withdrawal of the treaty – first agreed in 1997 and which Helsinki joined in 2012 – and the resumption of the use of this weaponry as an additional protection measure against Russia, particularly since Finland joined NATO in April last year.
The initiative has been championed by the former Chief of Defense of the Finnish Defense Forces, retired Admiral Juhani Kaskeala, who recalled in his petition that Finland now defends NATO’s longest land border with Russia (about 1,300 kilometers in length) and that the Finnish accession to the treaty occurred in a context radically different from the current one, in the midst of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This popular proposal, launched on Independence Day, December 6, collected the necessary 50,000 signatures for its parliamentary debate in just four days, while the President of Finland, Alexander Stubb, has already asked the country’s Ministerial Committee on Foreign and Security Policy (UTVA) to draft a report on the matter by the beginning of next year, according to the Finnish public radio television YLE.
In this regard, Kallas, who is precisely in Finland on the occasion of the European Union’s north-south mini-summit, explained that “those who are part of the Ottawa Convention are member states, Therefore the competition is theirs, whether they decide to join or not.
Kallas has acknowledged that this kind of debate is being reproduced in other EU Member States and has admitted that his opinion on anti-personnel mines is not completely defined.
“On the one hand, In peacetime, landmines cause a lot of damage, especially to animals, but also to children, and they have many consequences. On the other hand, they are also quite effective in terms of defense,” he considered.
“These are the debates that must be held and I respect the Member States that are holding them, but the decision is theirs,” he reiterated.
EU leaders discuss increased military spending
The heads of government of Finland, Greece, Italy and Sweden, plus the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the Estonian Kaja Kallas, met this weekend to discuss, in a “mini-summit” North -South, the future of military spending in the European Union and, in particular, the possible increase in contributions from member states to NATO, as demanded by the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump.
The most forceful in favor of the increase in spending has been the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who has estimated that the commitment of NATO countries to contribute 2 percent of their GDP “is probably history” because the amount is insufficient. Trump, it must be remembered, advocates raising contribution up to 5 percent.
“I think we are all aware that we will have to spend more than 2 percent,” said the Greek Prime Minister during the meeting held in Saariselkä, in the remote Finnish region of Lapland. “I don’t want to get into specific figures.because we all also have obligations at the national level and we must not forget that we operate within the European fiscal framework,” he added.
Mitsotakis has declared in perfect harmony with his Swedish counterpart, Ulf Kristersson, who already stated upon arriving at the summit that “Europe needs to assume greater responsibility for our own security.”
The Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, has been a little more cautious and has preferred to wait for Trump to clearly state his intention when he takes office on January 20. ““I would wait to understand exactly what the true will of the new president of the United States is,” has stated, before acknowledging that, as far as NATO is concerned, “we all know and understand that we have to do more.”
Important decisions
Kallas, finally, has applauded this weekend’s debate and assumed that “Some very important decisions will have to be made in 2025, because the problem with the field of defense is that we will no longer be able to make decisions when we really need them: they must be adopted much earlier, when times are peaceful.”
The most difficult conversation, he agreed, “will be the one that will revolve around financing”, and he has asked all Member States “to start thinking innovatively, because the problem is now and we have to make decisions now.”
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