The President of Finland, Alexander Stubb, called Russia "aggressive imperialist", upon arrival for the B9 summit at Riga Castle – the residence of the President of Latvia Edgars Rinkevičs, on June 11,
Finland, together with its Scandinavian neighbor Sweden in the person of Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, was invited as a guest to the multilateral format for consultations and dialogue on security issues, known as the Bucharest Nine, in which Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
President Stubb's words reinforced his thesis from late April, quoted at the time by the Associated Press, that his Finland was now a "front country" of NATO. This statement was made in the context of the fact that the country's accession to the alliance in April last year doubled the bloc's border with Russia, AP noted. The border line between Finland and Russia is 1,340 kilometers long.
Activity across multiple lines
Stubb and Kristershon arrived together at the palace in Riga to state to the media representatives their firm position in support of Ukraine, expressing the hope that B9 could soon "turn into B11". In the absence of leaders from Slovakia and Hungary (those countries were represented at the forum by their ambassadors in Latvia), the participation of Finland and Sweden in the top-level talks put the focus on the Northern sector of NATO's Eastern Flank.
On the same day - June 11, Finland deployed its fighter jets for the first time as part of a joint NATO mission, sending seven F-18s to the military base "Mikhail Kogalnicanu" in South-Eastern Romania. There, the warplanes will perform airspace protection missions together with Romanian and British fighter jets, Reuters specified.
Three days later – On Friday, June 14, Reuters reported a statement by Finland's Foreign Minister Antti Hakanen to reporters that a new NATO ground command would be deployed in the country.
"I have the honor to state that today all NATO member states have declared their political agreement with Finland's strategic goals in the process of its integration into the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. NATO's command headquarters and ground forces will be stationed in Finland, the defense minister of the Scandinavian country said.
Hakanen specified that the task of this headquarters is to direct and coordinate ground operations in Northern Europe and the Scandinavian Peninsula. He did not specify the specific location of the alliance's base, nor the number of its forces on Finnish soil.
"Such decisions strengthen the security not only of Finland, but also of the whole of Northern Europe, and this brings benefits to the safety of all countries in the alliance,” added the minister.
On the same day, the foreign ministers of the member states of the Baltic Sea Council (BSC) came out in the Finnish city of Porvoo with a joint call for concerted measures to thwart the controversial export of Russian oil with vessels unsuitable for this purpose, informed Reuters.
Representatives expressed deep concern about Russia's "increased hybrid operations, including subversion and acts of violence in the Baltic Sea region".
These operations include "disinformation campaigns, malicious cyber activities, electronic disruptions and actions aimed at damaging key infrastructure,", the organization's statement added.
In view of these and other threats posed by Russia since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it is "vital to strengthen resilience and crisis response capabilities," the foreign ministers of countries with outlet to the Baltic Sea, including Finland.
Ukraine Peace Action Initiative
On Saturday, June 15, on the first day of the Ukraine peace conference in the Swiss resort of Bürgenstock near the city of Lucerne, the Finnish head of state said that the forum should be followed as quickly as possible by concrete actions.< /p>
"Peace is always /…/ a process", he told nearly fifty heads of state, quoted by Reuters. "We have a border of over one thousand three hundred kilometers with Russia. Russia invaded Finland in World War II and then we lost ten percent of our territory, including the land where my grandmother, grandfather and father were born,” said Finnish President Stubb.
In Switzerland, he expressed his belief that Ukraine is now in a better starting position for peace talks than it was a few weeks earlier, thanks to the support of its Western allies.
"This forum in Switzerland, the G-7 summit, the decision to negotiate Ukraine's accession to the European Union and the aid provided by NATO to Kiev show it, Stubb noted. He expressed the opinion that, in fact, Ukraine is taking the path of negotiations from a position of declared power.
Specific measures are being taken
Finland has begun to take concrete security measures regarding Russia. On June 18, the Finnish parliament moved a bill to temporarily stop migrants at the border with Russia. On the occasion of this news, announced by the constitutional committee of the Parliament of Finland (Eduskunta), Reuters recalled the claims of Helsinki that Russia is deliberately directing migrants seeking asylum in the EU to the border with Finland.
Yesterday, Finland agreed with Norway and Sweden on the creation of an Arctic military transport corridor that would cross the northern part of each of the three countries, France Press informed. The agreement was reached at a meeting of Finnish President Stubb with Swedish Prime Minister Kristersson and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gar Støre in the Norwegian city of Bodø.
This agreement is an "important step" for these three countries that are members of NATO, Støre emphasized, adding that it will enable rapid transportation of personnel and equipment from Norwegian ports to Finland via Sweden.
Analyst Peter Apps noted in a Reuters story today that Finland, Sweden, Norway and the Baltic republics of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have already talked to each other about building a "attack drone wall” along NATO's Eastern flank with Russia in order to deter possible attacks by Moscow. This is the last step for now in strengthening the “front line” of NATO, of which Finland has become an "outpost“.