{"id":20301,"date":"2023-12-20T06:20:49","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T04:20:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/?p=20301"},"modified":"2023-12-20T08:43:53","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T06:43:53","slug":"finland-signs-landmark-defense-cooperation-deal-with-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/finland-signs-landmark-defense-cooperation-deal-with-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Finland signs landmark defense cooperation deal with US"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Finland, the newest member of the NATO alliance, has signed an agreement with the United States to enhance bilateral military cooperation. The representatives from the two countries met in Washington to finalize the deal on December 18, 2023, that aims to counter Russia\u2019s long-term threat to Europe. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The defense cooperation agreement between Finland and the U.S., the newest member and largest figurehead of the NATO alliance has formalized a new era of military ties between the two countries. Washington and Helsinki have agreed to enhance military cooperation in joint training of forces and military interoperability. The agreement aligns with Finland&#8217;s accession to the Atlantic Alliance in April. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen announced the agreement last week in Helsinki. She said the deal will allow Washington to station troops and store weapons inside the Nordic country, which shares a sprawling border with Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The agreement was signed during a meeting between the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Finland\u2019s Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen. The Finnish Defense Minister hailed the agreement as a &#8220;strong sign of U.S. commitment to the defense of Finland and the whole of northern Europe.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The alliance between Finland and the United States is closer than ever. <br>FM <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/elinavaltonen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@elinavaltonen<\/a> met with <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SecBlinken?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@SecBlinken<\/a> to discuss Ukraine, the Middle East, and cooperation on defence, trade and technology. <br>Defense Minister <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/anttihakkanen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@anttihakkanen<\/a> signed the Defense Cooperation Agreement. \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddee\ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\uddf8 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/yqPuaU41b1\">pic.twitter.com\/yqPuaU41b1<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Embassy of Finland in the US \ud83c\uddeb\ud83c\uddee (@FinlandinUSA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FinlandinUSA\/status\/1736812204320784492?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 18, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote> <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;We do not expect the United States to take care of the defense of Finland. We continue to invest in our defense and share the burden in our area and beyond,&#8221; Hakkanen said after meeting Blinken. &#8220;However, this agreement significantly enhances our ability to act together in all situations,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cToday NATO is bigger, it\u2019s stronger, it is more united than at any point in its nearly 75-year history, and that\u2019s in no small part thanks to Finland\u2019s accession.  And soon, Sweden will join as well,\u201d U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said following the signing of the defense pact. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He emphasized the importance of Finland\u2019s support to Ukraine amid Russia\u2019s invasion. \u201cFinland has been a steadfast partner to Ukraine as it defends its people, its territory, its right to shape its future, providing more than $2 billion in defense support, in humanitarian aid, and other assistance since Russia\u2019s full-scale aggression.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Blinken added that with the defense cooperation deal, the U.S. would play its role in booting Finland\u2019s defense capabilities through joint military initiatives as well as providing the latest military equipment including the F-35 fighter jets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWe now have a network of Defense Cooperation Agreements that stretches from northern to southern Europe, from the Norwegian Sea to the Black Sea \u2013 providing security and stability for people all across the continent,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft size-full is-resized\"><a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/finland-us.jpg?ssl=1\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/finland-us.jpg?resize=800%2C500&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Finland signs landmarks defense cooperation deal with US\" class=\"wp-image-20307\" style=\"width:848px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/finland-us.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/finland-us.jpg?resize=300%2C188&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/finland-us.jpg?resize=768%2C480&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em><sup>Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen (left), Finnish Defense Minister Antii Hakkanen (center) and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken during the signing of the U.S.-Finland defense cooperation agreement on December 18, 2023,  at the Department of State in Washington, DC. (Image Credit: Finnish Embassy in the U.S.\/X)<\/sup><\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>Finland\u2019s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen, who was also present in Washington during the signing ceremony, said that Finland\u2019s bilateral relations with the United States are excellent. \u201cYou are our key strategic partner and ally, but also our most significant trade partner,\u201d she said at the news conference following the meeting. Valtonen emphasized that Finland\u2019s \u201cNATO membership, along with the DCA, gives us momentum to lift U.S.-Finland cooperation to the next level.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><br><strong>Finland\u2019s focus on defense<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Scandinavian country shares one of the longest borders in Europe with Russia, stretching up to 1340 kilometers. At its closest point, Finland\u2019s border is less than 500 kilometers away from Russia\u2019s second-largest city, St. Petersburg. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since becoming the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/finland-becomes-31st-member-of-nato-in-major-blow-to-russia\/\" data-type=\"post\" data-id=\"14600\"><mark style=\"background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);color:#ac0707\" class=\"has-inline-color\">31st permanent member of the NATO alliance<\/mark><\/a>, Finland has been expanding its military spending and upgrading its arsenal as well as signing several defense agreements with fellow NATO member states amid the ongoing war in Ukraine and Russia\u2019s increasing aggression toward Europe. Helsinki has become NATO\u2019s fifth-highest military spender as a part of its GDP, falling only behind the U.S., Poland, Estonia, and the UK. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finland has also increased the mobilization of its armed forces. The latest defense agreement would support Helsinki to bolster its defense posture and also help Washington enhance its military presence in Nordic lands. While Finland\u2019s peacetime military force is the same size as Czechia\u2019s, its wartime military personnel figures are larger than France&#8217;s, standing at more than 280,000.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finland, the newest member of the NATO alliance, has signed an agreement with the United States to enhance bilateral military cooperation. The representatives from the two countries met in Washington to finalize the deal on December 18, 2023, that aims to counter Russia\u2019s long-term threat to Europe.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[62,1,125],"tags":[6,357,252,239,5,59,20,113,7,22],"class_list":["post-20301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","category-news","category-united-states","tag-defense","tag-europe","tag-f-35","tag-finland","tag-military","tag-nato","tag-russia","tag-security","tag-u-s","tag-ukraine"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/12\/finland-us-defense.jpg?fit=690%2C370&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7jJWb-5hr","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20301"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20318,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20301\/revisions\/20318"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ir-ia.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}