HELSINKI — Finland and the United States have signed a bilateral defense-cooperation pact pledging military collaboration at a time when the Nordic country is increasingly concerned over Russia’s activities in the Baltic Sea region.
The deal was Friday in Helsinki by the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work and the Finnish Defense Minister Jussi Niinisto.
While the U.S. and Finland already closely cooperate through joint military drills on air, land and sea, the nonlegally binding pact seeks to deepen the ties through information exchange, joint research and development in areas like cyberdefense and training among other things.
The pact covers cooperation in shipbuilding, nuclear defense and developing technologies for the Arctic — an area of increasing interest for both nations.
In the three-page declaration, the U.S. and Finnish defense departments jointly state that “the U.S. presence in and around the Baltic Sea undergirds stability in the region, and creates opportunities to increase defense cooperation between our countries.”
As a reminder of the military realities in the region, Niinisto said earlier Friday that Finland suspects that Russian SU-27 fighter jets violated the country’s airspace on two separate occasions in the Gulf of Finland on Thursday.
The claim was quickly denounced by Russia’s defense ministry, which, as quoted by news agency TASS, said the planes flew over international waters “in strict compliance with the international regulations.”
While the Finnish media speculated that the air intrusion may be related to Work’s visit, others claimed it was caused by an ongoing air drill by Russian air forces in the region.