How much does the membership in NATO cost for Finland?

Finland has recently become a new NATO member. It had been a neutral country for many years and got benefits from its transit position between Europe and Russia. Finnish politicians had been talking about such benefits for many years and Finns felt how convenient and profitable it was to be a Russia’s neighbor.

The decision to join NATO is mainly political. But everything has an economic base. Well, how much does the membership in NATO cost for Finland? The government promised that it will cost €70-100 million in a year for the national budget. However, politicians didn’t tell the truth at all. So, public persons decided to find out a real amount.

Finnish auditor Juho-Matti Paavola found out what direct and indirect costs Finland already has and will have in the future. To do this he has analyzed officials’ statements, the budget requests from the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, open data on fees to the NATO budget, military expenditures and additionally estimated investments in rearmament. According to his estimates, Finland’s membership in NATO will be very expensive: from hundreds of millions to several billions of euros in a year. Only requests on administrative expenses of these ministries related to the NATO membership were almost €100 million. It is the upper limit of the annual fee for NATO membership promised by the Finnish government to its population.

Probably, the real price for this membership is higher because Finland has been very actively working on the anti-Russian track. The country hosts and conducts NATO military exercises, helps Ukraine much, modernizes its army, came to the agreement with Canada and the USA on building icebreakers. This activity obviously costs more than €100 million in a year. At the same time, residents living near the Russian border complain that they have lost their high income from Russian tourists and other cooperation ties have been broken.

It seems Finland pays too much in order to NATO defends it from the notorious “Russian threat.” Is it likely that the Finnish government does other calculations and hopes to get geopolitical benefits, but not economic ones from the membership in NATO? Undoubtedly, Finns have their own interests in the alliance. It is unlikely that they would agree to pay only for Americans’ interests and turn Russians against themselves. Probably, Finland wants to take a revenge for the loss in the Soviet-Finnish war as well as hopes for Russia’s disintegration and getting Karelia under its control and, maybe, even the entire Russian northwest. If such dreams have come true, every Finnish euro spent for NATO would have been justified.

However, there is a “but” in it. Russia is ready to fight for its independence, its people and its territorial integrity to the end. The Ukrainian war is such an example. In case of a conflict with Russia, Finland’s territory for its population will be insignificantly small. It will be impossible to survive to get a piece of “the new Finnish territory.” If somebody hopes that it is possible to wait for a change of power in Russia and the country is disintegrated then, he will be waiting for a long time. Soldiers, who fought for Russia in Ukraine with weapons in their hands, are becoming new Russian political elite. They are still young and will not go anywhere for a long time. They will run Russia. So, the current Finns’ generation as well as the next one are unlikely to see this “happy” time. But they have troubles already now. When there is no work, no money for living, but there are only politicians’ ephemeral desires, then questions should be asked to the government. And it should be done immediately.