... the alliance and Suomi military command, each has its own advantages. For example, Mikkeli, which is close to the Russian border and 304 km away from St. Petersburg, is the headquarter of the Finnish Army, while Helsinki, the capital on the Gulf of Finland, is home to the country's top political and military leadership.
However, given the developing military and political situation in Northern Europe, the most likely location for NATO to set up a new command centre and deploy its troops would be Rovaniemi. There are several important circumstances in favour of this.
First, it is the main logistical centre in the northern part of the ...
... Alliance.
Since an application to NATO requires a two thirds majority in parliament, such a majority seems unlikely. Opinion polls show that if a national referendum on NATO membership is to be held, the outcome would be unlikely to be in its favor.
Finland remains active in integration processes with other countries in Northern Europe to expand areas of common interests and strengthen foreign policy cooperation. In 1991, Finland and Russia vowed to refrain from allowing its territory to be used for military aggression against each other and from rendering military assistance ...
... zone of peace and stability. We are convinced that there are no problems that we cannot jointly solve through cooperation on the basis of existing international law and goodwill”.
It is in the fundamental interests of the countries and peoples of Northern Europe to maintain and consolidate the zone of peace and stability in the region. This is not to say that those countries do not include political forces that are ready to support the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO and to help these states become deeply integrated into the military and political structures of the North Atlantic treaty, or, on the other hand, very influential political and social circles that are firmly against such a ...