HELSINKI: NATO’s new member Finland will participate in the Western military alliance’s nuclear planning and support operations, the Finnish defense ministry said on Thursday, although it has decided not to allow any nuclear arms on its soil.
In a historic security policy U-turn after decades of military non-alignment, Finland became NATO’s 31st member on April 4, responding to neighboring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
When joining, the Finnish government decided Finland would not permit the stationing of nuclear weapons on its territory but did not set other restrictions for the Nordic country’s membership.
In practice, Finland will take part in the work of NATO’s nuclear planning group, which reviews and sets the alliance’s nuclear policy, and could join support functions for NATO nuclear operations outside its own territory, Director General for Defense Policy Janne Kuusela told Reuters.
“Nuclear weapons have a very central role in the deterrence and defense built by NATO. We, too, will enjoy the protection from them and therefore it is a positive matter for Finland to participate in full in different ways and by no means shut itself out of it,” Kuusela said.
Among NATO members, only France has opted out from participating in the nuclear planning group, opting to reserve decision-making around its own nuclear weapons to itself.
“These activities are led by the nuclear powers,” Kuusela said, referring to the United States and Britain, which both have their own nuclear arsenal and who lead the work of NATO’s nuclear planning group.
New member Finland to take part in NATO’s nuclear planning
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New member Finland to take part in NATO’s nuclear planning
- Finland would not permit the stationing of nuclear weapons on its territory
Bangladesh summons Myanmar envoy after border clashes
- A dozen villages in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district have been affected by the violence
DHAKA: Bangladesh on Tuesday summoned the ambassador of Myanmar after civil war gun battles in the neighboring country spilled over the border, wounding a Bangladeshi girl.
Heavy fighting in Myanmar’s Rakhine state this month has involved junta soldiers, Arakan Army fighters and Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army militia guerrillas.
Authorities said around a dozen villages in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district have been affected by the violence.
Twelve-year-old Huzaifa Afnan was struck by a bullet, while a Bangladeshi fisherman had his leg ripped off after stepping on a landmine near the frontier.
“Bangladesh reminded that the unprovoked firing towards Bangladesh is a blatant violation of international law and a hindrance to good neighborly relations,” a Foreign Ministry press statement said.
Myanmar’s ambassador to Bangladesh, U Kyaw Soe Moe, was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on Tuesday, where he expressed sincere sympathy to the injured victims and their families.
“My daughter was supposed to go to school, but she is on a ventilator,” Afnan’s father Jasim Uddin said. “My heart is bleeding for my baby girl.”
More than a million Rohingya have fled their homes in Myanmar, many after a 2017 military crackdown, and now eke out a living in sprawling refugee camps just across the border in Bangladesh.
ARSA, a Rohingya armed group formed to defend the persecuted Muslim minority, has been fighting the Myanmar military, as well as rival Arakan Army guerrillas.
On Monday, Bangladeshi border forces detained 53 ARSA fighters who had crossed the frontier.
Bangladeshi police officer Saiful Islam, commander of the local Teknaf station, said all detainees were being held in jail, except one fighter who was receiving hospital treatment for bullet wounds.
“These individuals have a history of living in the refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar and crossing into Myanmar,” Islam told AFP.
