Finland could join Nordic air surveillance effort in Iceland

New dimensions sought for Nordic military cooperation

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New dimensions are emerging in military cooperation among the Nordic Countries.
     A report on Nordic foreign and security policy cooperation, which is to be made public on Monday next week, calls for a joint Nordic effort to guard the territory of NATO-member Iceland. Finland would also be involved in the effort.
     The true willingness of the Nordic countries to work together will be weighed at an unofficial foreign ministers' meeting in Oslo on Monday, when Thorvald Stoltenberg, who has served as both Foreign Minister and Defence Minister of Norway, publishes a proposal on about a dozen practical projects in which the countries could work together.
     
The proposals range from joint Nordic embassies to permanent cooperation in crisis management, various sources say. The greatest expectations involve proposals for defence cooperation.
     According to advance assessments, the proposals call for expanded Nordic defence cooperation to a an area which is much wider than at present, and would deepen it in the direction of actual common defence.
     Stoltenberg did not want to comment on the content of his proposals before they are made public on Monday. Finnish and Norwegian civil servants were also somewhat reticent in their comments, insisting on anonymity.
     
The importance of Iceland among the proposals is underscored, because the common air surveillance of the area raises difficult questions, which have largely been avoided so far.
     
Last year Iceland and Denmark joined the other Nordic Countries in military cooperation.
      A major issue is, at what point cooperation in the surveillance of an area, or common defence resources in general amount to a common defence - that is, an obligation by the countries to defend each other. Norway, Denmark, and Iceland are already part of NATO, while Finland and Sweden are not.
      Last year Sweden declared that it would not stand by if one of the Nordic Countries were attacked.
      Finland has not taken such a clear stance.
     
The importance of air surveillance of Iceland, which does not have any armed forces of its own, has increased after the United States closed its air base in Keflavik in 2006.
      Other NATO countries patrol Icelandic airspace only occasionally, while Russian strategic bombers have resumed flights near Iceland. There is also increased interest in northern areas in general.
     
The starting point of the new report is not the establishment of a Nordic military alliance, says Professor Tuomas Forsberg, a Finnish political scientist who was consulted for the report.
      Forsberg emphasises that he has not seen Stoltenberg’s report yet, and he was merely commenting on discussions that he had.
      He added that steps would be made for a common defence when there are no impediments to it.
     
Researcher Charly Salonius-Pasternak of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs said that movement toward a common defence is in-built into defence cooperation. If cooperation and common resources are agreed upon, then it is also necessary to agree on what to do if war breaks out, says Pasternak, who is drawing up a study of his own on Nordic military cooperation.
      There has been no comment in NATO on the possible expanded Nordic defence cooperation, but in recent years NATO has encouraged such moves.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Defence policy report: Finland “strongly” considering NATO (26.1.2009)
  Finns still wary of joining NATO (5.12.2008)

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