Finland has participated in NATO PfP activities from the very inception of the Partnership for Peace programme, i.e. 1994. The PfP programme constitutes the political framework and the normative basis of Finland-NATO cooperation. International crisis management and the promotion of stability are highlighted in NATO activities. By actively participating in NATO cooperation and, especially, crisis management cooperation Finland bolsters international and national security. The basic principles of said cooperation are transparency and the possibility of participating in all of the activities open to partner countries. Partner countries choose the volume and scope of their participation on the principle of self-differentiation. Ministries or other government entities only participate in activities they deem relevant or useful to them. The PfP programme is a practical and effective vehicle for developing civilian and military crisis management capabilities. The capacities thus derived are available to all international crisis management activities as per a national decision, regardless of whether the actual operations are led by the UN, OSCE, EU or NATO.
The Mission of Finland to NATO manages Finland’s relations with NATO within the framework of Partnership for Peace. The Mission acts as an intermediary between the national authorities and NATO. Several administrative branches participate in Finland-NATO cooperation. The most active ones are: The Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defence, Defence Command Finland, Ministry of Transport and Communications, Ministry of the Interior as well as the National Emergency Supply Agency, an organisation accountable to the Ministry of Employment and the Economy. Personnel of the Mission report to Helsinki and participate in meetings and working groups on a weekly basis.
The Mission actively disseminates relevant information on Finland-NATO cooperation to policymakers, interest groups and citizens.
The decision to create the NATO Response Force (NRF), i.e. NATO’s rapid reaction troops, was taken at the NATO Summit in Prague in 2002. The 2006 Summit in Riga declared a full operational capability for the Force. The NRF is the key instrument for transforming and exercising the military capabilities of the European NATO Nations. The NRF is also a high-readiness formation which, when necessary, can be appropriately tailored to different NATO operations.
It is important to NATO that the key Partner countries maintain the highest possible interoperability with NATO troops in the future as well. Therefore, participation in the NRF has been opened to willing and capable partners. For this purpose NATO has drawn up guidelines for partner countries’ participation in activities supplementing the NRF. Partner countries participate in such activities on a voluntary basis. ”Supplementary activities” means that the NRF does not depend on non-NATO capabilities. Rather, NATO requires that the NRF always be capable of operating on the capabilities of NATO Nations alone.
Willing countries are required to participate in the Partnership for Peace Planning and Review Process (PARP), to declare units available to the Operational Capabilities Concept (OCC) pool of forces and to ensure that their troops pass the required operational readiness evaluation. NATO does not expect the partners’ participation in the NRF to significantly alleviate shortfalls experienced during force generation. Rather, the most important goal in partner participation is to assure that partners will continue to be able to efficiently cooperate with NATO and deploy capable troops to NATO-led crisis management operations also in the future. A Partner country’s participation in a possible international crisis management operation, together with the NRF’s standby rotation of that time, would always entail national operation-specific decision-making and approval from the NATO Council. This differs from the principles of the EU’s battle groups, among other things, in the sense that NATO always plans to generate the NRF and execute operations solely by relying on the contributions of NATO Nations. The potential contributions of Partners are supplementary by nature.
According to a decision of the Cabinet Committee on Foreign and Security Policy in November 2006, Finland can participate in NRF exercises open to Partner countries. Since then Finland has already participated in exercises in which NATO has trained and evaluated troops declared for the NRF. In April 2007 Finland and Sweden submitted an oral statement to the NATO Secretariat in which they informed that they would consider the opportunity to participate in activities supplementing the NRF positively. In March 2008 the Cabinet Committee on Foreign and Security Policy decided to authorise Finland’s NATO Ambassador to deliver to NATO a letter that confirms Finland's willingness to participate in activities supplementing NATO’s Response Force. Following this, the North Atlantic Council (NAC) took the decision to invite Finland to participate in NRF cooperation. Ukraine, another Partner country, also participates in activities supplementary to the NRF.
At present, Finland participates in two NATO-led crisis management operations: Kosovo Force(KFOR) in Kosovo and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.
On the proposal of the Government, the President of the Republic shall decide on Finland’s participation and on the termination of participation. Before introducing the proposal to deploy a peacekeeping force, the Government shall consult the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament. If the proposal concerns a crisis management operation that presents a particularly demanding military challenge or an operation that is not based on a UN Security Council mandate, the Government must, before submitting its proposal, consult Parliament by providing it with a report on the matter.
Finnish participation in military crisis management is laid down in the Act on Military Crisis Management (31.3.2006/211). (PDF, 144 kB)
The primary military purpose of NATO partnership is to improve troop capabilities to participate in crisis management operations.
On the military side of PfP, it is the Planning and Review Process (PARP) that is the crux of the partnership as regards the long-term development of crisis management troops and other capabilities. Finland has engaged in PARP cooperation with NATO since 1995; it continues to be the most important instrument in developing the international interoperability of the Finnish Defence Forces.
According to Finland’s PARP listing as of April 2008, Finland has altogether 52 Partnership Goals. They focus on improving the interoperability of troops and certain niche capabilities identified for international crisis management tasks. Partnership Goals and NATO cooperation also play a major role in the development of Finnish capabilities intended for the EU’s battle groups.
The Operational Capabilities Concept (OCC) is another key entity for improving the crisis management capability. Within this Concept NATO has, among other things, opened demanding exercises (excluding exercises related to common defence) to its partners. Participation in these exercises requires that the troops belong to the OCC Pool of Forces and that they pass the qualitative “threshold requirement” pertaining to the exercise. The OCC also facilitates the evaluation of the troops’ interoperability and capabilities by using technical, qualitative and capabilities-related standards developed by NATO. A positive evaluation, in turn, translates into a pass regarding crisis management operations.
NATO Civil Emergency Planning (CEP) has two main dimensions: systematic and efficient utilisation of civilian preparedness in NATO’s strategic planning as well as activities related to civil protection. An increasingly important area of CEP is the protection of critical infrastructure, such as networks.
The civilian sector has gained increasing prominence in NATO activities in recent years. The same applies to civil-military cooperation. This is not only evident in preparing for and supporting crisis management operations, it can also be seen in the military authorities’ preparedness in assisting the civilian authorities during natural disasters as well as in managing the consequences of chemical, biological and radiological terrorist strikes.
Participation in NATO CEP not only provides information on the arrangements of Member and Partner countries, but it also offers an opportunity to network with the authorities of other countries and promote Finnish crisis preparedness expertise.
Updated 12/10/2008
