Finland plans to host two NATO headquarters
Kyiv • UNN
Two NATO headquarters are planned to be located in Finland: the Land Forces Northern Europe and the Forward Land Forces. The exact location of the headquarters has not yet been approved, but the cities of Mikkeli, Sodankylä, and Rovaniemi are being considered.
Two NATO headquarters will be located in Finland - the headquarters of the Northern Alliance Land Forces in Northern Europe and the headquarters of the Alliance's Forward Land Forces (FLF), the Finnish TV channel Yle reported, according to UNN.
Details
"Two headquarters will appear in Finland: the headquarters of NATO's ground forces in Northern Europe and the headquarters of the alliance's forward ground forces," the newspaper writes.
According to Yle, a decision will soon be made on which cities in Finland will host NATO headquarters.
According to Yle, the headquarters of the ground forces is planned to be located in Mikkeli. To begin with, in addition to Finnish officers, there will be several dozen foreign officers.
The headquarters of the Forward Land Forces (FLF) is supposed to be located in northern Finland, Sodankylä or Rovaniemi.
The location of any of the headquarters has not yet been approved.
On Monday, the Swedish and Finnish defense ministers announced at a press conference in Stockholm that Sweden is ready to take command of NATO's forward ground forces to be deployed in Finland.
President Alexander Stubb, who is on a visit to Tampere, commented on Yle's data, saying that decisions on the location of NATO headquarters are made based on military interests, not regional politics. According to him, the decision has not yet been made.
Addendum
DW reminds that in late August it was reported that Finland could deploy a NATO armored brigade on its territory to deter external threats. A brigade of 4000-5000 soldiers and officers is already being formed and will be deployed in Mikkeli, Iltalehti wrote, citing sources in NATO and security services.
In addition, it was reported that the Scandinavian countries were creating a military transport corridor through the north of the peninsula from Norwegian ports to Finland.
Against the backdrop of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, Finland joined NATO in 2023, thus ending its 75-year period of neutrality. As a result, the alliance's common border with Russia doubled to 2,600 kilometers.
