Senior Finnish and NATO officials hold talks in Helsinki

The Bucharest Summit, Finland’s participation in NATO-led crisis management operations and potential participation in activities supplementing the NATO Response Force (NRF) were discussed when senior Finnish and NATO officials held talks during NATO Assistant Secretary General Martin Erdmann’s visit to Finland on 11–12 October.

In their joint press conference on 11 October, Assistant Secretary General Erdmann and Markus Lyra, Under-Secretary of State for Foreign and Security Policy, Press and Culture, stated that the topics addressed at this semiannual meeting were, among others, the Bucharest Summit of NATO to be held in spring 2008 and Finland’s participation in NATO-led crisis management operations.

Finland a reliable cooperation partner

Martin Erdmann considers that these semiannual consultations of senior officials are a good example of the close cooperation between Finland and NATO. “Finland is one of NATO’s closest, most active and most reliable cooperation partners, and I don’t only mean NATO-led operations such as Afghanistan and Kosovo, but general political cooperation”, Erdmann stated. Finland’s commitment to the ISAF operation in Afghanistan and the KFOR operation in Kosovo also gives Finland the opportunity to participate in the coming Bucharest Summit, where one of the priorities will be NATO crisis management operations. “The decisions taken at the Summit are always important for the future of the organisation”, Erdmann stressed.

When asked about Finland’s participation in NRF forces, an issue about which no decision has been taken yet, Erdmann replied that NATO has a positive view of all increases in cooperation with Finland, but that each state must itself decide independently when and on what scale it will take part in operations without NATO attempting to advise or guide in any way. Erdmann emphasised the importance of national decision-making as concerns NRF operations. In the case of every operation, each country decides itself whether or not it wishes to participate. As concerns Finland’s possible joining of NATO, Erdmann also repeated that “the door is and will remain open to Finland, but Finland herself must decide whether she wishes to step through that door.”

Development of NRF troops a topical issue

Development of NRF troops is a topical issue to NATO as challenges increase and because crisis situations change constantly. Lyra thought that Finland would take a decision concerning participation in the near future. “Together with Sweden, the previous Government already informed NATO of both countries’ willingness to consider participation in activities supplementing the NRF. The new Government hasn’t addressed the issue yet, but the general policy line is positive”, he stated. In his view, Finland’s participation also depends on how the NRF troops develop in future.

Lyra said that Finland will also increase her input in the ISAF operation. The comprehensive Afghanistan report in progress considers participation, among others, in training the Afghan army and taking on additional responsibility in provincial reconstruction team (PRT) activities in Northern Afghanistan. Erdmann praised Finland’s participation in NATO-led crisis management operations, which has been stable for several years now.

Other central topics of discussion were relations between NATO and Russia, Finland’s upcoming chairmanship of the OSCE and Finland’s new security and defence policy report.