Finland holds Arctic military exercises

The Nordic nation held drills in the Arctic, while emphasizing the strengths it would bring to the NATO alliance.

Finland said on Monday that it will bring its “strong” army as it pushes for its membership to the NATO alliance, even as its army conducted a military training exercise in the Arctic.

“What we will get, the answer is quite easy, we will get the Article 5 and what we will bring to NATO is that we have quite a strong army up here in the north,” said Colonel Sami-Antti Takamaa, commander of the Army Academy which conducted a military exercise in Rovajärvi, in Northern Finland close to the Swedish border.

Finland and Sweden formally applied to join the NATO alliance on Wednesday, a decision spurred by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but face objections from Turkey to an accession process that is expected to take only a few weeks.

The Article 5 security guarantee comes into effect when membership is gained, a process which requires all 30 NATO states to accept the countries’ applications.

Takamaa who oversaw the exercise said the army was monitoring the ongoing situation in Ukraine and was following what their eastern neighbor, Russia, was doing.

The exercise will continue until May 27.