It is one of the most hostile regions on earth: only a few people live in the ice landscapes of the Arctic. And yet the huge area is strategically important – economically and militarily. Russia and NATO face off in the Arctic. The West has a lot of catching upContinue Reading
Greenpeace on Friday warned Norway that its plans to open up its Arctic seabed to mining would cause “irreversible” damage to the entire marine ecosystem. The Scandinavian country is expected to award the first exploration licences in 2025, and could become one of the first nations in the world toContinue Reading
In addition to ammunition and new weapons, Estonia will significantly enhance its intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) capabilities in the coming years, said Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur (Reform). From 2025 to 2028, Estonia will invest nearly €6.4 billion in the defense sector. At a government press conferenceContinue Reading
A long-awaited decision on the location of Nato headquarters in Finland is imminent. According to Yle’s sources, Mikkeli is expected to be announced as the HQ for the Northern European land command unit while the multinational forward land force (FLF) will be based in either Rovaniemi or Sodankylä in FinnishContinue Reading
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 beContinue Reading
“We saw a need to create a tailored model for Finland to ensure that allied troops can show their presence and defence capabilities here when we want to,” Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen said. Next week, Finland will attend its second Nato summit as a full member of the alliance, inContinue Reading
Finland hopes the decisions taken at the summit will offer a bridge for Ukraine to join Nato in the future. Finnish President Alexander Stubb will attend the Nato 2024 summit in Washington DC, United States, next week, the Office of the President announced on Tuesday. Key topics of the summitContinue Reading
Asylum policy and support for Ukraine are two issues in which the views of a majority of voters and most candidates in the EU parliamentary election diverge. A new report by the Natopoll research project has found that people in Finland are far more in favour of turning back irregularContinue Reading
The Arctic region is increasingly becoming a new frontier for geostrategic competition between the powers. Moscow and Beijing see eye-to-eye on the need to preserve the Arctic as “a territory of peace, low military-political tension, and stability,” as President Vladimir Putin’s state visit to China underlined. Russia and China willContinue Reading
The Russian bordering Nordic nation of Norway has announced it will be considerably increasing the size of its armed forces over the next decade, in the most significant change in its defence in modern times. The Norwegian government made the big reveal of its long-term defence renewal plan on Friday, sayingContinue Reading