Finland to be invited into NATO rapid action force at Riga summit

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NATO is expected to offer Finland and other non-NATO members of the Partnership for Peace programme more and deeper military cooperation at the alliance’s Riga summit.
      The NATO Council decided in mid-November that the P for P countries would be welcome under certain conditions in exercises and operations of the NATO Response Force. Under the proposed conditions, the countries in question should be willing and able to work together with NATO, which means that the forces offered by the countries should meet certain NATO standards.
      NATO has informed its Peace Partners in advance about its upcoming decision.
     
NATO will accept Finnish forces who have undergone international training into its NRF operations. Forces from Sweden and Austria are also believed to be acceptable to NATO.
      The non-NATO countries would not be taken into operations covered by Article 5 of the NATO charter - that is, in which the security of NATO countries is at stake.
     
In Finland, the government and the President have taken the view that Finland would be willing to take part in NRF exercises. However, no decision has been made on whether or not Finnish forces should be among those which take turns at being on alert for deployment on NRF missions at short notice.
      If it were to participate in this manner, Finland would nevertheless decide separately on whether or not to send Finnish troops to an operation. Under crisis management legislation, the decision would be made by the President on the basis of a proposal by the government, as is the case with deployment for operations of the EU rapid response forces.
     
NATO wants to expand its NRF force from the present 19,000 soldiers to 25,000, but there have been problems with recruitment, which is one reason why NATO is reaching out to non-members.
      One reason for the reluctance is money: the member states are expected to pay the expenses of participation on their own. Some NATO members have proposed that transport costs for the operations should be shared among all member states.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Bush to propose expanded NATO partnership for Finland (22.11.2006)

Helsingin Sanomat