Defence Ministers of Finland, Sweden and Norway on Monday said that NATO’s Forward Land Forces (FLF) in Finland is progressing rapidly and will be established this year, said the Ministry of Defence in a press release.
The Ministers in a joint declaration after a meeting at the Cold Response 26 exercise at Rovajärvi said that Sweden will provide the core of the multinational battlegroup for FLF Finland, based in Boden (Northern Sweden) and FLF Finland will be established before the NATO Summit in Ankara this summer.
Finnish Defence Minister Antti Häkkänen, Sweden’s Minister of Defence Pål Jonson and Norway’s Minister of Defence Tore O issued the joint declaration after the meeting hosted by the Finnish Defence Minister.
“This is the most important Arctic exercise of the spring. Over 30,000 professional soldiers and reservists from 14 countries are training joint NATO operations in Norwegian and Finnish territory,” said Häkkänen.
“The exercise also involves moving troops from Sweden to Finland, which is a key part of FLF Finland’s operational concept. The FLF approach will strengthen the security of Finland and the entire northern flank of the Alliance,” he added.
The Ministers in the declaration noted that rapid progress has been made in implementing FLF Finland and the objective is to establish FLF Finland before the NATO summit in Ankara in July 2026.
“In practice, this means both the battle group offered by Sweden and the Multinational Staff Element to be established in Finland,” said Häkkänen.
Sweden is the framework nation for FLF Finland, which is a multinational NATO land force. Norway is the lead nation in Cold Response 26 and is one of the countries participating in the development of FLF Finland. The United Kingdom, France, Italy and Iceland have also announced their participation in the development of FLF Finland.
- NATO
- FLF Finland
- July
Source: www.dailyfinland.fi
