Finland’s government has proposed an amendment to parliament that would lift restrictions on importing nuclear weapons, a move to align the country with NATO, an alliance it joined in 2023.
“The Government proposes to remove the legal barriers on importing nuclear devices into Finland and on transporting, supplying or possessing them in Finland in the context of Finland’s homeland defense, the collective defense of NATO or defense cooperation,” Finland’s Ministry of Defense said in a statement on April 23.
The statement said that acquiring, manufacturing, developing, or detonating nuclear weapons would remain criminalized. “The objective of the government proposal is to remove legal barriers concerning nuclear devices to enable Finland’s homeland defense as part of the Alliance and the full use of NATO’s deterrence and defense,” the ministry said.
The changes to Finland’s law would leave open the possibility of the country, which shares a border with Russia of more than 800 miles, joining NATO’s nuclear sharing program, under which the US has nuclear bombs stationed in five NATO states: Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Turkey.
France is also looking to deploy its nuclear weapons to other countries, with French President Emmanuel announcing last month that Paris plans to expand its arsenal and will allow the deployment of nuclear-armed French aircraft to eight allied countries: Germany, Britain, Poland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece, Sweden, and Denmark.
So far, there are no confirmed plans for French deployments to the eight states listed above, but if the plan does come to fruition, it would put NATO nuclear weapons much closer to Russia. Finland’s president, Alexander Stubb, recently said that his country doesn’t intend to host nuclear weapons in “peacetime,” but if the law is changed, such deployments would be possible.
