Finnish lawmakers voted on Wednesday to overturn a Cold War-era total ban on nuclear weapons, which the Finnish government says will strengthen the NATO alliance but which could also risk heightening tensions with Russia
Finland is not a nuclear state and has repeatedly said it does not plan to become one. Other NATO countries do have weapons, but until now Finland could not host them — either as a deterrent or to support the alliance in times of emergency.
With the change, Finland will allow its allies’ weapons to be imported into, transported through, or held on its territory to defend Finland or assist NATO.
“The nuclear deterrence is, in the end, the guarantor of peace in Europe,” Heikki Autto, the chair of the defense committee in Finland’s Parliament, said in an interview on Wednesday.
“It’s the ultimate deterrence against the Russian aggression.”
Finland joined NATO only in the wake of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Over the past couple of years, it has been eyeing its neighbor as Russian forces beef up bases and build military infrastructure near their 830-mile border, now the longest Moscow shares with NATO.