Finland to join France's forward nuclear deterrent: joint statement

Finland will join France's nuclear deterrence initiative, extending the measure to a country sharing a long border with Russia, the two countries said in a joint statement on Monday.

France is extending its nuclear deterrent to European allies as the continent reassesses its security amid US President Donald Trump's shake-up of NATO.

"Finland has decided to join forward deterrence," the two countries said.

"A nuclear steering group will be set up in the coming months to begin implementing this cooperation."

Finland is the tenth European country to join the plan to access France's nuclear stockpile.

Eight initital countries -- Britain, Germany, Poland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece and Denmark -- were joined by Norway in May.

Welcoming Finland's announcement, the Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal told AFP, Estonia was in "discussion" with France to join the nuclear deterrence initiative.

"It needs certain capabilities, readiness and so on," Michal told AFP at the sidelines of an European Arctic Summit in Rovaniemi in northern Finland.

"We are under NATO's nuclear umbrella already. And France is also backing up our independence with the troops in Estonia. So if the cooperation can be deeper in nuclear field, that probably will go so," Michal said.

Finland's announcement came as part of a new strategic partnership between Finland and France, due to be signed by the countries' foreign ministers in Helsinki on Monday.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb confirmed the decision on X, saying it was "first and foremost about strengthening European security".

He stressed that the French nuclear deterrent would not "replace or overlap" with NATO's.

"Finland's foremost priority is to act as part of NATO and the European Union," he added.

France's initiative would extend its nuclear deterrent to other European countries through joint exercises and allow participating countries, for the first time, to temporarily host French nuclear-armed aircraft.

Paris would retain national control over its nuclear arsenal, with the final decision on its use remaining with the French president.

Finland abandoned decades of military non-alignment when it joined NATO in 2023, following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Its parliament voted in June to lift the country's blanket ban on nuclear weapons, allowing them to be brought into, transported through, supplied or possessed in Finland when required for the country's defence.