Assessment of the effects of Finland's possible NATO membership is ready

Press release 85/2016
29 April 2016

According to the Government Programme, the Government will prepare a Report on Finnish Foreign and Security Policy and, in connection with its preparation, assess the effects of Finland's possible NATO membership.

The assessment of the effects of Finland's possible NATO membership was submitted to Minister for Foreign Affairs Timo Soini on 29 April 2016.

The assessment is an autonomous report on the effects of Finland's possible NATO membership and it was compiled by an independent international group of assessors. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has not provided any guidance, nor is it responsible for the content or conclusions of the report.

The group of assessors was appointed in January and its members were Ambassador Mats Bergquist (Sweden), François Heisbourg, Chairman of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and the Geneva Centre for Security Policy (GCSP) (France), Ambassador René Nyberg (Finland) and Teija Tiilikainen, Director of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs (Finland).

The assessment will be available as reference material for the Government when it finalises the Report on Finnish Foreign and Security Policy. This report will be submitted to Parliament in its spring session and it will also include an assessment of Finland's NATO cooperation.

Inquiries:

François Heisbourg, tel. +33 6 7295 49 26, [email protected]
Mats Bergquist, tel. +46 73 339 33 60, [email protected]
René Nyberg, tel. +358 50 420 3840, [email protected]
Teija Tiilikainen, tel. +358 9 432 7701, [email protected]

Further information about the relations between Finland and NATO: Timo Kantola, Deputy Director General, tel. +358 295 351 477; Mikko Kinnunen, Director, tel. +358 295 351 820

The effects of Finland's possible NATO membership