Finland’s Nordic neighbour Sweden, on the brink of joining NATO, signed a similar deal last week.

NATO’s newest member, Finland, has announced it will sign a bilateral defence cooperation agreement next week with the United States.

The deal will allow Washington to station troops and store weapons inside the Nordic country, which shares a sprawling border with Russia.

Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen told a news conference in Helsinki on Thursday that Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen will sign the so-called Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) on Monday.

  • Nobody@lemmy.worldEnglish
    2066·
    11 months ago

    Special thanks to Vladimir Putin for making this possible, you fascist cunt.

  • TWeaK@lemm.eeEnglish
    571·
    11 months ago

    It should be noted that this agreement is completely separate from NATO.

    • wizzor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      36·
      11 months ago

      Technically yes, but in practice the goal is to make the practical arrangements implementing of Article 5 security quarantees possible. There is not much use of NATO support, if alliance forces can’t operate in Finland in a practical way.

      I am sure there are new operational agreements of similar nature will be made between Finland and Sweden as well as Finland and Estonia. That said, there is already a significant degree of defence cooperation between Finland and Sweden.

      Finland is also already part of the british led JEF, and I would be surprised if the Nato framework would not change the nature of that cooperation.

      • Sagifurius@lemm.eeEnglish
        22·
        11 months ago

        Yeah, almost like a massive web of mutual defense treaties…where have i heard that one before? oh BTW Russia, India, Brazil for some fucking reason, and some other asian countries have a mutual defense agreement.

    • cygnus@lemmy.caEnglish
      343·
      11 months ago

      The best defense against war is the ever-present threat of overwhelming retaliation.

    • intensely_human@lemm.eeEnglish
      92·
      11 months ago

      The best way to prevent war is to have extremely deadly force on display, with the implicit promise of punishment to anyone who attacks.

      • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
        84·
        11 months ago

        Remind lemmy next time someone is bitching about US defense spending.

        Yes, we could do shitloads better, but the most expensive thing on planet Earth is a 2nd rate military.

          • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
            32·
            11 months ago

            The most expensive thing on the planet is a second-rate military. Think on that.

            • intensely_human@lemm.eeEnglish
              1·
              11 months ago

              Until a person is forced to grapple with violence aimed at them, they will shy away from recognizing deterrence as a reliable method. Until they’re forced to, they won’t choose to face the existence of those they can’t reason with.

              I can’t think of any way around that.

          • intensely_human@lemm.eeEnglish
            11·
            11 months ago

            They benefit from the nuclear standoff. Just like unarmed people in a room with a few armed guys. Nobody’s beating anyone else up in that room.

            • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
              1·
              11 months ago

              Uh huh. Middle East must be so peaceful in that case. Since everyone has guns everywhere. Glad to know that literally nothing violent is happening in the territories and Israel now. Same with school shootings in America. When I was a kid they were common, but when all the good guys with a gun got guns, school shootings vanished.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
        31·
        11 months ago

        We should give a whole bunch of nukes to them also Ukraine also Poland. Just like so many and with ways to deliver them. Then Biden should take selfies with the nukes in storage there and have them emailed to Putin while Biden eats an ice cream cone.

        • intensely_human@lemm.eeEnglish
          2·
          11 months ago

          Poland yes and Ukraine as soon as there’s peace there. I don’t know how I feel deploying nukes into an already-active warzone.

          Nukes make more sense to me when it’s quiet. Of course if you put a nuke in Ukraine, it’s sort of like defining the wall in Go. All the play has to now avoid that line. So maybe immediate nuclear deployment in Ukraine could work. I just don’t know. Haven’t thought it through.

  • lad@programming.devEnglish
    18·
    11 months ago

    Astrologists proclaim the week of great geopolitical victories and news from Russia about how Finland should beware

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldBEnglish
    4·
    11 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:

    Finland’s Nordic neighbour Sweden, on the brink of joining NATO, signed a similar deal last week.

    NATO’s newest member, Finland, has announced it will sign a bilateral defence cooperation agreement next week with the United States.

    The deal will allow Washington to station troops and store weapons inside the Nordic country, which shares a sprawling border with Russia.

    Finland joined NATO in April after decades of military non-alignment, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

    Under the deal, Finland will allow US soldiers access to 15 military areas and facilities covering the entire Nordic nation.

    Last week, Finland’s close Nordic neighbour Sweden, which is on the brink of joining NATO, signed a comparable deal.

    The original article contains 293 words, the summary contains 115 words. Saved 61%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • cheese_greater@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1516·
    11 months ago

    Fuck it, let Ukraine join. Its at the point where we’re complicit in all this. Why the fuck hasn’t Interpol arrested his progeny for the time being and leverage the fuck out of them (in the most civil fashion)?

    ’ Be a real goddamn shame if they were to be

    1. Stripped penniless + “personal assets” converted into numerically exact number of Rubble(s)— minus conversion feez and preferably smouldering and to be withheld indefinitely via escrow (maybe the Swiss can help with this…)

    2. If unarrestable/undetainable, Qatartined to a shitty wasteland like fucking USSR empire or some shitty desert hellhole where they’ll be put in their place (only Russia altho we know there’ll be boot-self-Sodomizers) 🙄

    3. Actually positive for the girlz if they have “Daddy” issues (like Daddy is implicating me to guilt by association a d maybe won’t let me leave to live a seperate, peaceful life

    4. Bomb us, bomb yourself asshole

    War over, a-check fucking a-MATE!!!

    !

    Edit: Just cuz Russians are so “good” at Chess DOES NOT mean they are impervious to a bigger asshole fucking ripping the board off the table and beating them till death by anal impalement and symbolically safely neutralizing the much-implied+threatened explosive-potential by releasing all that vast worthless pent-up natural gas(ski) they sell and talk

    Edit: I kinda like the sound of QATAREENA 🤣 Fuck them,🌵oo

    • cbarrick@lemmy.worldEnglish
      293·
      11 months ago

      Letting Ukraine join now would immediately trigger war between NATO and Russia. That could easily become nuclear.

      In NATO, an attack on one is an attack on all. There’s a good reason nations cannot join NATO with ongoing border disputes.

      • cheese_greater@lemmy.worldEnglish
        87·
        11 months ago

        There’s exceptions to every rule, including no exceptions. Russia is banking on US (both us and the United States) to facilely play by “the rules” and keep letting Hitler (noun) Hitler (verb)

        That’s on us, we should be so lucky to further box in Russia till they get alternative leadership with a new vision

        They’re not gonna bomb shit, that would take away any remaining leverage and is essentially akin to reifying Pascal’s wager at the nation state level and the SOOOOO not rhetorical realm in which bullies like and specifically Russia so fluorish in unopposed. And he knows how far more terrifying the loss of control that would represent and gurantee for him.

        We need to stop playing by Putinz/our rules and throw the fucking rulebook at him. Set a precedent that NATO will pull up its goddamn big girl panties and plug the fucking bloodshed regardless of the soverignty of whatever orifice from which it orginates

        Everybody needs to stop appeasing and take control. He can’t KGB or dirty-trix his way out of this, we have to realize we’re an elephant on a leash spun of imaginary silk and we are very much violently allergic such substance

        • shalafi@lemmy.worldEnglish
          83·
          11 months ago

          👆🏻 Sane take right here.

          After this whole Ukrainian debacle, who thinks Russia has functional nuclear weapons? Remember when the US and the Soviet Union agreed to limited disarmament and inspected each other’s ICBM silos? And the Russians had rusty rockets and silos full of water? LOL, once we captured a defected Mig, the vaunted air superiority fighter, they were running vacuum tubes.

          There were hilarious videos at the beginning of the war. Russian soldiers joking and playing with their rusty AK-47s. Yes, 47s, not AK-74s or whatever variant is the latest, 47s. Twisted, bent main springs. Pins falling out. Rusted actions. Smack it a little, it’ll feed.

          Take a moment and imagine NATO warriors with such rifles. Really. Try to picture it. I have better shit in my safe. Last year they were fielding WWII tanks. Imagine what they’re fighting with now.

          FFS, Russia is begging artillery shells off North Korea. (And those shells are failing.) How hard up gotta be to bum ammo from your crackhead neighbor?!

          “Yeah man, I got these shells man. This is some good shit! Swear to god man! They fly! They explode! C’mon man, I got these two cheeseburgers!”

          Back to nukes. Someone will come along and say, “It takes ONE!” Now imagine the fallout (heh) from Russia letting ONE off the rails. Not like Putin has a literal red button. It will take a chain of orders and men willing to push that button. They will not do so. Putin may go completely mad, but his top brass is well aware that American boomers are on the prowl, and undetectable. Nothing defends the world’s peace like an Ohio class submarine.

          I grew up under the threat of Soviet nuclear annihilation. They are our enemies. They are on their heels. They started the biggest land war since WWII. Press the attack and call their bluff once and for all.

          Or, pussyfoot around and whine about Russia’s threats for another generation or three. Whatever.

      • K[r]ukenberg@feddit.chEnglish
        32·
        11 months ago

        There’s a good reason nations cannot join NATO with ongoing border disputes.

        Good thing Greece and Turkey are BFFs.

          • EvergreenGuru@lemmy.worldEnglish
            2·
            11 months ago

            Doubtful. Greece has been limping along economically for a decade and Turkey is a major player in drone warfare. Also, I don’t wish war on either of those countries.

          • K[r]ukenberg@feddit.chEnglish
            1·
            11 months ago

            Maybe, it’s still a major border dispute between Nato members where territorial integrity is violated repeatedly.

        • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          11 months ago

          I got a solution: let’s give Ukraine all the WMDs they want. Just dig the old sarin canisters out of storage and a pile of nukes. Maybe they can drive one in with a deadman switch straight into Moscow.

      • cheese_greater@lemmy.worldEnglish
        23·
        11 months ago

        I hate to drop The H-Bomb but the conjecture remains that Hitler would support this “course of [in]action”. 🫡

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
        410·
        11 months ago

        That could easily become nuclear.

        You say that like it is a bad thing. Just think about it for a moment. You either get a quick painless death or you never ever have to worry about student loan debt, credit card debt, your credit score, your school district banning books, global warming, zoning laws, housing prices, who the president is, being on time to work, or whatever shit Twatter did this week. All you have to think about is basics of survival and if you don’t like your local warlord you can just stick a knife in his throat when he sleeps.

        Civilization is overrated and ours isnt worth saving. Now before you defend it ask yourself something: is there a single easy to solve problem your government is going to solve in the next ten years?

          • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.worldEnglish
            15·
            11 months ago

            I am fine, thanks for your concern. Did I say anything factually wrong? Would you like to name the easy to solve problem your government is definitely going to solve in the next decade?

    • fosforus@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      11·
      11 months ago

      As much as I support Ukraine’s fight against Russia, they frankly have a lot of getting-shit-sorted-out before they should be let in either EU or Nato. Admitting them in while in midst of a war would be a total spin of the roulette wheel as to what we get.

      • cheese_greater@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        11 months ago

        Can’t there be some provisional like they’re under our wing/in training designation so fuck off Russia. Like, leave my court clerk alone type deal