The agreement also opens Finnish military areas to the use of the United States.
Finland and the United States have completed negotiations on a defense cooperation agreement. The negotiations have lasted more than a year.
The paper created at this stage is only a draft. Next, it goes to political processing.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs says in its press release that the completed round of negotiations was the most recent.
– It is not excluded that the matter could still be discussed thoroughly, head of the political department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Petri Hakkarainen says.
According to Hakkarainen, the negotiations went in a good spirit.
He does not say anything about the content of the agreement yet, because the completed proposal is not yet public. The draft agreement has also not yet been on the table of the president and the ministers responsible for the government’s foreign and security policy.
The United States has similar agreements with more than 20 countries. Finland wants to increase its security with the agreement. The agreement establishes the rules of the game and the conditions on the basis of which US troops can enter Finland quickly and simply.
It has already been announced to the public that the agreement contains clauses and conditions related to the entry of soldiers into the country, which enables Finland to pre-storage US troops’ material in Finland. It also deals with issues related to taxation and legal practice, for example.
reported yesterday that Finland would open up several military areas to the United States as well. There would be no permanent base in Finland.
The content of the agreement is final only when the representatives of Finland and the United States have signed the agreement. The agreement will become public in Finland when the TP-Utva of the president and the government has processed it.
The defense cooperation agreement will only enter into force when the Finnish Parliament has approved the agreement. The Foreign Affairs Committee and the Defense Committee have already been kept informed during the negotiation phase of the agreement.