The US and Finland are working out a deal that would allow the US to establish a military presence in the Nordic country, as Helsinki is now a member of NATO.
According to Newsweek, Finnish Foreign Ministry official Mikael Antell confirmed the two nations are negotiating a Defense Cooperation Agreement that may allow for the construction of significant military infrastructure on Finnish soil.
The potential agreement would not include nuclear weapons, although Finnish officials have previously not ruled out hosting nukes. The US has nuclear weapons stationed in five NATO countries under the alliance’s nuclear sharing program but not in any nations that became members after the end of the Cold War.
Antell said the potential DCA “enables troops to enter the country, stay on the ground, the pre-storage of material and possible infrastructure investments through the funds granted by the US Congress to the Pentagon.”
The US and Finland have been in talks on the DCA since last fall, and discussions on the deal took place in Helsinki last week. “The agreement also defines the facilities and areas where the cooperation would be focused,” Antell said. “They are basically military areas and garrisons. In principle, there can be more than one, but the discussions are still open in this regard.”
Finland shares an over 800-mile border with Russia, and its ascension into NATO means the region will become further militarized. Moscow has plans to beef up its military presence near the border in western Russia and has said it will take more steps to respond to the expansion of NATO infrastructure in Finland.
It seems like the chess board is getting smaller and smaller….
With nukes.
Kind of makes me wonder what the US may be willing to sacrifice to stay in the game.
And speed chess too… Tic toc tic toc.
The USA wants to encircle Russia serving American interests. They expect Finland to fund the bases too. The USA does not station troops in Finland out of kindness. And the Fins should remember what Henry Kissinger said, to be friends with the Americans is fatal. They will treat Finland and Sweden like they treat Germany. The governing elite and big business will benefit.
The encirclement of Russia with American military bases serves only to increase hostility and make the world more dangerous because Russian missiles are also ready to fly any moment. MIC is gambling with the lives of billions of people and American taxpayers are paying for this with their money if lucky, if unlucky they will pay with their lives. MIC oligarchs are the only beneficiaries. The rest of the human kind are losers.
To be an enemy of America can be dangerous, but to be a friend is fatal
Henry A. Kissinger
Some years ago Putin said, if the fight is unavoidable, it is better to strike first. Russia started already the massive production of the hypersonic missiles.
And thank God Russia did!
OK. So now we are supposed to think, well, since Russia attacked Ukraine, it makes them vulnerable. But where were the Finns when they could have recognized Russia’s demands for security guarantees? What made them go along with the written official promise to Ukraine that they would one day join the military alliance against Russia? It seems obvious to me that the Finns are not really afraid of Russia. they are more afraid of what would happen if they did not join NATO. That’s the problem with escalation.
On the side that respected the Budapest Memorandum – i.e. that the Ukraine is a sovereign country and thus free to apply for NATO membership if they want – knowing that Ukraine could not join while it had a conflict with Russia.
There has been no such written official promise – no one can promise this, they can promise to work towards it, but any one NATO member can veto Ukraine joining.
Finland is genuinely worried about Russia’s potential actions post SMO, until the annexation of Crimea the Finns were not concerned, but that event started things moving.
That said it is clearly true the being one of the few non NATO members would be worse – the more that join the more dangerous it becomes to be one of the few not in.
The people in Crimea decided to leave the Ukrainian polity after the US/NATO instigated coup in Kiev. Does Finland fear that part of Finland would decide to leave if the US/NATO instigated a coup in Helsinki?
Obviously not. The context and comparison between these two countries is ludicrous.
The people of Crimea were occupied by the Russians less than 7 days after Yanukovych had left Ukraine – so the notion that they decided on any cause of action as a consequence of the government in Kyiv being ousted is plainly contradicted by the timeline and the actions of the Russians.
The support for joining NATO is broad and by all fractions of the Finish society – so there is no fear that any NATO country is about to ferment a coup in Finland – so no they do not have any such fears.
The fear is that Putin will invade – you seem to have problems grasping that Putin and the Russians have actually threatened as much.
“Naturally, this forces us to take countermeasures to ensure our own tactical and strategic security,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters at a press briefing, per the Moscow Times. ” Doesn’t look like a “threat to invade”. Any country that has reason to believe that there is a hostile state next to them would say or do something similar, if not worse. This is a case of deliberately trying to antagonize where no previous threat existed, just to join in on the pile on. “War guarantees” have a way of inducing artificial bravery to the guarantee holder, which history has often shown ends in their own destruction when the guarantor cannot deliver.
That depends on where you live and what your history with the Russians is.
The neighbors of Russia has lived with Russian invasions – until Crimea the Finns were very sure that the Russians would not invade like the Soviets did in 1939, after Crimea less so, after the SMO they were very concerned so much so that they preferred to join NATO, though they had previously thought that unnecessarily provocative.
“…any one NATO member can veto Ukraine joining.” So why was Finland not that nation?
Finland was not in NATO so could not VETO, nor has Ukraine been accepted to join NATO so no country has had the opportunity to VETO it – Turkey is currently VETO’ing Sweden joining.
1) In order to apply for NATO membership that country has got to have a clean slate. East Ukrainian separatists were resisting the Maidan Coup regime. There was and stil is a civil war going.
2) Ukraine after 2014 was not a democracy. It stil isn’t . Major opposition parties were abolished, no free press, Russian language forbidden, Russian orthodox church no longer allowed etc etc.
3) There is no evidence whatever that Finland feared a Russian invasion. Russia had no armies along the Finish border. Fins used to visit Petersburg for cheap shopping. They won’t be very happy now. Prior to 2014 Russia had always a naval base in Cremia and a Russian garazon by agreement with Ukraine. Cremians did not resist the Russians , whereas East Ukrainians took up arms against the usurpers of a in 2010 democratically elected government that got a clean bill of health fro the United Nations.
Very true, so reason one that there was no immediate threat of Ukraine joining NATO.
No Ukraine was a democracy and remains one – the proof is in the pudding, UK did not stop being a democracy because they interned the fascists in 1940 – nor did Ukraine because they outlawed some of the bigger opposition parties – the Russian language is not forbidden, and practicing Russian orthodoxy is also fine – organizations judged to be working for the invaders have been ‘banned’ as they would in any country democratic or not.
You are flat out wrong – the evidence is there for all to see in the attitude towards Finish NATO membership – before Crimea they were very reluctant, after 2022 they have become very pro joining – given the downsides the only explanation for the change in popular support is a perception of threat.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1293557/opinion-development-on-joining-nato-finland/
https://www.rferl.org/a/finland-nato-survey-membership/32145117.html
Btw: Joining NATO will not change their option for cheap chopping in Russia – before the SMO I could travel for cheap shopping in Russia from Lithuania which is in NATO.
The protests in East Ukraine were going to peter out – that is according to the Russian agents who managed to ferment these protests into a civil war.
Like the rest of the western leaders, that party queen Finnish Prime Minister was the most damaging enemy of the Finnish people–not Russia.
We got to protect those oil fields for Europe as they ramp up exploration.
Perhaps that EU army that Macron wants as Europe goes that 3rd way he envisions could protect those fields for Europe themselves?
Wow, lucky Finland! Now the Americans can use it to expand the US empire’s claims on all the natural resources of the Arctic. US taxpayers will pay for building and maintaining military bases in our new colony, and Finns will suffer the indirect costs of their new vassal status. Another ‘heads-we-win, tails-you-lose’ victory for the Military Industrial Complex.
“US in Talks on Establishing Military Bases in Finland A
Finnish official said a potential deal would allow the deployment of
troops and the construction of new military infrastructure”
The insanity of America never stops.
Now Ukraine has attempted to assassinate President Putin with a drone strike on the Kremlin!
Finland would have to be suicidal to allow US militry bases?
But our leaders keep telling us that it is Putin that has imperialistic ambitions.
Finland just turned down Ukraine’s demands to supply them with jets during their recent meeting saying they were too old and creating a supply chain to keep them flying would be too hard as well.
There is so much wrong with this picture, but I’ll just say, US won’t get the chance to build a base in Finland.
Gee, that didn’t take long!