A report by the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) takes a cautiously positive assessment of the NATO alliance.avoids taking a direct stand on whether or not Finland should join NATO. FIIA, which currently works under the Finnish Parliament, says that the report gives a "real-time and comprehensive picture of NATO". Helsingin Sanomat has learned that the report notes that Finland and all other countries will have to make decisions on NATO on the basis of incomplete information, because NATO is in a constant state of change.
NATO's position as a military alliance of collective defence will nevertheless remain unchanged, FIIA reports. The common European defence is to be organised in the future through NATO alone, alongside national decisions. Not even the countries that are members of both the EU and NATO have proposed organising defence through the European Union, because the EU would not be able to implement security guarantees in reality.
The report repeats the common view that NATO's more recent activities in crisis management will be tested in Afghanistan, which the alliance cannot afford to leave. Finland currently has about 100 soldiers in the NATO-led ISAF forces in Afghanistan.
Joining NATO would not cause permanent damage to Finland's relations with Russia, the report finds, even though membership would probably affect defence planning in the northwest of Russia.
The FIIA researchers deduce that Finland's relationship with NATO will change regardless of whether or not Finland joins the alliance.
FIIA drew up its NATO report at the same time that the Ministry for Foreign Affairs was drafting a report of its own. The two projects appear to be unrelated.
The Foreign Ministry is scheduled to release its report after it has been presented to the foreign policy committee of the President and the government later this month.
