[ad_1]
The NATO member, Finland, plans to leave a global convention that prohibits antipersonal land mines and drives defense spending in response to a military threat in evolution of Russia, says the government.
Poland and the Baltic countries of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said last month that they would withdraw from the 1997 Ottawa Convention due to the threats raised by neighboring Russia.
When leaving the treaty, Finland, which protects the longest border of the NATO military alliance with Russia, could begin to accumulate the land mines again to have them by hand in case a need arises.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said at a press conference that there was no immediate military threat to his Nordic country, but that Russia represents a long -term danger for all of Europe.
“Withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention will give us the possibility of preparing for changes in the security environment in a more versatile way,” he said.
He added that Finland would allocate additional 3 billion euros ($ A5.2 billion) to the defense, raising the military expenditure level of 2.41 percent in 2024 to 3 percent of the gross domestic product by 2029.
President Alexander Stubb said in an X publication: “This is part of Finland’s contribution to Europe assuming greater responsibility for our own defense.”
The ads come with the president of the United States, Donald Trump, they double by ending the war in Ukraine, which has caused growing concerns of the Polish and Baltic that Russia could re -assemble them and point them out instead.
Finland joined NATO in 2023 in a change of policy of decades of non -alignment triggered by the invasion of Ukraine in Russia, attracting a Russian threat of “countermeasures.”
Finland began to consider the withdrawal of the Treaty of Ottawa last November when his military commander said the matter should be discussed due to the use of such weapons in Ukraine.
“Finland will use mines in a responsible manner, but it is a deterrent element that we need,” said the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Sari Essayah, the journalists.
The antipersonal land mines are designed to be hidden in the ground and automatically detonate when someone passes them or goes through their proximity.
Finland destroyed more than one million land mines after 2012, becoming the last country of the European Union to sign the Ottawa Convention, which has been ratified or accessed by more than 160 countries, but not by Russia, China or the United States.
The 1997 Treaty was one of a series of international agreements concluded after the end of the Cold War to encourage global disarmament.
Anti-Landmine activists won the Nobel Peace Prize that same year.
The mines have killed or mutilated tens of thousands of civilians worldwide, many of them long after the wars have ended.
Leaving the treaty will require the approval of the Finnish Parliament, but a generalized support between the government and opposition parties is expected to pass.
[ad_2]
Source link
