The US military will now feel at home in Suomi
Photo: GLOBAL LOOK PRESS.
The Finnish parliament has unanimously approved a military cooperation agreement with the United States. Helsinki believes that a bilateral agreement with the leader of the Western world will be an additional guarantee of security for the Finns. The agreement itself was signed in December in Washington, but was only ratified by the Finnish parliament on July 1.
The agreement between the United States and its satellites in the North Atlantic bloc is largely a standard document granting the US Armed Forces special rights in the territories of the countries that have signed it. The number of such bilateral agreements around the world already exceeds two dozen, and all Scandinavian states are among the “signatories.”
As part of the ratified agreement, US military personnel will be able to move around Finland with fewer formalities and preposition (i.e. pre-store) military equipment, supplies and consumables on Finnish soil. In addition, soldiers will have access to 15 Finnish military bases, and their owners may not know all the details of the US military’s presence at these facilities. US military personnel also receive customs benefits and legal immunity from prosecution by Finnish authorities for a number of crimes. In practice, this means that an American serviceman who has committed even a serious crime cannot be arrested and convicted in Finland – most likely his or her home country will quietly remove him or her and try him or her (or not) under US law; in theory, the Finns can insist on convicting an American serviceman on the spot, but this is only theoretical.
The obviously unequal nature of the agreement reached by the government initially sparked strong criticism from the parliamentary opposition, but after behind-the-scenes suggestions it was approved unanimously.
Why did the critical MPs show such flexibility? It’s all about Trump. If the unpredictable Donald returns to the White House in the autumn, the fate of NATO will be a big question mark. Will the Americans agree to fight for the interests of their European allies if Article 5 of the Washington Treaty is triggered, according to which an attack on one NATO member is automatically considered an attack on all members of the bloc? With Trump, this is far from a given! And a bilateral agreement is an additional insurance policy, because Republicans traditionally respect direct agreements with other states more than radical promises made to international organisations. What do the Finns expect today?
