Finland will host a new land command unit of the NATO military alliance, according to Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen.
The Defense Minister noted that all NATO member states have given their political consent to Finland's key goals of integration into NATO.
"I'm pleased to state that today all NATO member states have given their political consent to Finland's key goals in its NATO integration. Finland will host a NATO command and there will be land force presence in Finland," Hakkanen said.
The minister said that the Finnish NATO command would be tasked with controlling ground military operations in Northern Europe and Scandinavia.
However, he declined to reveal the exact location of the command or how many NATO troops would be stationed in Finland, saying that detailed planning was still ongoing.
After Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the debate over Finland's accession to NATO immediately shifted in favor of membership. On May 18, 2022, the country officially applied for membership, and less than a year later, on April 4, 2023, Finland joined NATO and became the 31st member of the Alliance.
At the time, Ukraine's Minister of Foreign Affairs emphasized that Finland's accession to NATO was a clear signal of the need for Ukraine's membership.