Finland’s conscription policy should treat all genders equally, according to responses from the Social Democrat (SDP) and Green parties to an Yle security policy survey sent to party leaders. Other parliamentary parties would keep conscription as it is, with female military service carried out on a voluntary basis, although theContinue Reading
“Being Norwegian is just like being Finnish, but without the drunkenness.” This is how the popular Norwegian social media account helgi.and.erlend describes the differences between the two Nordic nations in a video captioned “Gotta love the Finns”. In the background of the video, as if to emphasise the point, aContinue Reading
Finland is to decide this week on how it will participate in a European project to deliver Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine to help defend itself against Russia. Yle has learned that the government will meet on Thursday to consider a proposal on the issue from the Ministry of Defence.Continue Reading
Finnish President Sauli Niinistö meets on Wednesday with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Störe. The foreign and defence ministers of all three countries, including Pekka Haavisto (Green) and Mikko Savola (Cen) from Finland, will also participate in the mini-summit. The three-way Nordic conference willContinue Reading
The prime minister of Sweden has warned against delinking his country’s Nato membership bid from Finland’s, after the alliance acknowledged for the first time that the two might have to join separately owing to Turkey’s obstruction. Ulf Kristersson said in an interview that for strategic reasons, the two membership applicationsContinue Reading
There are currently as many as 20,000 people who have applied for Finnish citizenship waiting for their applications to be processed, according to Anna Lindström, head of the Immigration Service’s (Migri) permits and citizenship unit. During a normal year, the agency receives around 10,000 applications for citizenship. However, in 2021,Continue Reading
The Ukrainians who first sought protection in resource-strained Estonia but decided to take up an invitation to live in Finland began arriving in Helsinki on Tuesday, according to the Finnish Immigration Service (Migri). Given the relatively small size of Estonia, the country has received a “considerable number” of Ukrainians fleeingContinue Reading
Finland is facing a changed foreign and security policy environment, especially since Russia’s operation in Ukraine, the Interior Ministry’s latest national risk assessment report has outlined. The report, published on Tuesday, is the first national risk assessment since 2018 and the authors noted the extent to which the threats FinlandContinue Reading
A group of protesters disrupted logging operations at Aalistunturi in Kolari, Finland, on Sunday. According to the Forest Movement (Metsäliike in Finnish), five activists from the group are preventing logging on lands administered by the state-owned forest management organisation Metsähallitus. This marks the fourth time the logging has been disrupted.Continue Reading
Estonia’s defense cooperation with Finland and Sweden is already very good, and it will not be damaged by delays in the two countries’ accession to NATO, said Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) on Tuesday. “Our security cooperation with both Finland and Sweden is very strong. We are in theContinue Reading