Minister Kääriäinen: Finland must spend more on defence, or join NATO

Minister of Defence Seppo Kääriäinen on Wednesday spelled out what he sees as the options of Finnish defence policy in the coming years. He sees only two possibilities for Finland: the Defence Forces need more funding, or Finland must join NATO.
      "Continuing on the current road would lead to a gradual deterioration of the Defence forces... and ultimately a dead end", Kääriäinen said at a meeting of the National Defence Course Association in Helsinki.
      Kääriäinen says that the problems facing the Defence Forces are the result of higher costs for defence materiel. According to some assessments, prices of military equipment double every seven years. The Minister of Defence calculates that at this rate, Finland will not be able to maintain its Defence Forces at the present level in the latter part of the next decade.
     
One option in Kääriäinen’s view, would be for Finland to continue on the present course, and stay outside NATO. If this is the choice, Finland would need to spend more on defence.
      "One reason for granting more funding would be the desire to maintain conscription as an integral part of Finnish society, and a network of garrisons at approximately the same strength in all of the country", Kääriäinen said.
      However, he questioned whether or not there was enough political will to provide the funding.
     
Another option in Kääriäinen’s view would be for Finland to join NATO.
      However, he added that saving money cannot be a reason for applying for NATO membership. The Defence Minister said that the matter should be determined by national security considerations, rather than a desire to save money. "Even as a NATO member, Finland would have to increase its defence budget", the minister said.
     
Kääriäinen would not say, even when asked directly, which option he preferred - a bigger defence budget, or NATO membership.
      He also would not give specific estimates of how much staying non-allied would cost. In his view, the defence budget would require a "moderate, but controlled increase".
      "We are not talking about huge sums, or wrecking the budget", he added.
      About two years ago a working group estimated that NATO membership would cost Finland about EUR 70 million a year. On Wednesday, Kääriäinen would not comment on how his calculations relate to that estimate.
      He did point out, however, that the sum of EUR 200 million was found for replacing infantry land mines with other weapons, "because the issue was important".
      "I hope that there will be the same kind of responsible realism at the government tables when decisions are made of the defence of the country in the next decade", Kääriäinen said.
     
In his presentation, Kääriäinen said that he hoped that the parties that form the next government will decide on the main lines of defence policy, and put them in the government’s policy programme, "including questions of financing".
      Issues concerning the development of national defence have generally been laid out in the government’s defence policy reports. The next one is due in 2008.
      Kääriäinen recommended that in the next round, a Parliamentary follow-up group should be set up in connection with the report. Now it appears that setting up the group will be the responsibility of the government that is formed after Parliamentary elections in March.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Sweden and Finland pledge to keep each other informed of NATO plans (16.10.2006)
  TV news: Editors of largest newspapers support NATO membership (12.10.2006)
  Minister Kääriäinen expects new offer from NATO on closer cooperation (19.6.2006)
  Estonia’s NATO Ambassador: Small country´s voice is heard in organisation (5.4.2006)
  NATO would cost Finland EUR 70 million a year (14.2.2006)
  Defence Minister denies military exercises being used to bring Finland into NATO (12.1.2006)