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Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Affirms the Formal Military Integration of Finland [1]

['Paolo Giordano']

Date: 2023-06-12 16:29:26+00:00

General Philippe Lavigne, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation, affirmed the formal military integration of Finland into the Alliance on June 12, 2023, following the completion of the Final Integration Conference in Helsinki, Finland.

Allied Command Transformation leads NATO’s military adaptation and coordinates national efforts to enable interoperability between Allies. In doing so, Allied Command Transformation ensures that the Alliance and its warfighters are able to maintain a decisive advantage over its adversaries by maintaining a Military Instrument of Power that is fit for purpose, and fit for future. Recently, these efforts have included leading the Finnish Accession and Integration Working Group that has successfully supported Finland’s military integration into the Alliance.

General Philippe Lavigne marked the completion of the Final Integration Conference on June 12th, 2023, at the Presidential Palace in Helsinki, Finland, by signing a joint declaration with the Finnish Chief of Defence General Timo Kivinen. The signature of this document marked the culmination of Finland’s military integration process and made Finland’s accession and integration the fastest in NATO’s history. The efforts of the Finnish Accession and Integration Working Group that preceded this joint declaration began in July 2022, and focused on coordinating activities across ten functional areas of military integration to allow Finland to participate in NATO operations.

Speaking on Finland’s accession and integration during his remarks at the signing ceremony, General Lavigne said “Finland’s accession marks a symbolic turning point for this northern European nation, for the Alliance, for Europe, and far beyond! […] Now a new chapter in the Alliance’s history is being written. Finland’s accession to NATO is a game-changer, a major contribution to our collective defence, a decisive step towards restored stability on the European continent, and lasting peace.”

General Kivinen also provided his remarks at the signing ceremony, noting, “NATO is built upon the Musketeer principle: one for all, all for one. We Finns understand that well and are committed to fulfilling the obligations that stem from the principle – and we do take our commitments seriously. We have started to plan our possible future contributions to peacetime collective defence activities, NATO readiness forces and deployable capabilities. We will bear our fair share of the burden.”

The military integration of a new member state into NATO runs in parallel with the political accession process, and can only be completed after the new member has officially joined the Alliance. NATO provides support with all practical aspects of this process, with the new member state being responsible for the integration of its armed forces into the Alliance. Finland’s military integration with NATO has proceeded as planned, and integration has been comprehensively implemented across key functional areas of the Finnish Defence Forces, such as equipment and modernization, force structure, and cyber defence. Despite the formal conclusion of the integration process, military integration will continue in the years to come to ensure full interoperability between Finnish and NATO forces.

Finland applied to join NATO in May 2022 following Russia’s unprovoked and unlawful invasion of Ukraine, becoming a full member less than a year later. Finland has a longstanding relationship with NATO due to its participation in the Partnership for Peace Programme, and its accession and integration makes both Finland and NATO safer and stronger.

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[1] Url: https://www.act.nato.int/article/sact-affirms-finnish-formal-military-integration/

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