HELSINKI: A senior NATO commander said on Monday that Finland has not urged for NATO nations to deploy forces on its territory.
The chairman of NATO’s military committee Admiral Rob Bauer said that “Whether we will deploy forces in Finland is a question that starts with Helsinki,”.
Rob Bauer said that they have not received such request but they can discuss the matter in future.
Finland to join NATO
AFP reported that Finland will become the member of NATO today in an historic and strategic shift that doubles the alliance’s land border with Russia.
Russia’s war on Kyiv pushed Finland — and Sweden — to drop non-alignment policy and apply to join the NATO alliance.
Moscow’s response to Helsinki ‘s membership has been muted, but it has promised to bolster its forces in its northwest over the upcoming years.
The Dutch admiral insisted that NATO plans for defending its new member from any possible attack will rest “foremost” with Finland as they have very capable forces.
Bauer said that the additional border with Moscow is an issue that Finland is also dealing with it for the last 75 years.
He further said that they get territory in order to defend, but they also get the forces of Finland to help the alliance with that.
But if Russia does launch attack, he promised that NATO “will come, as per plan to assist defend Finland via strategic reinforcements”.
