Finland is stockpiling military equipment in Norway and Sweden

Finland has started storing military equipment in neighbouring Norway and will soon begin doing the same in Sweden, the Financial Times has reported.

Lieutenant General Mikko Heiskanen, deputy chief of staff for armaments and logistics in the Finnish Defence Forces (FDF), told the British business daily that Finland is stepping up its already high level of preparedness in the face of an “increasingly aggressive Russia”.

“We are not alone anymore. We can trust others. We don’t need to keep all our eggs in one basket. We don’t need to own all the cows to produce the milk for us,” Heiskanen said of the decision to stash military equipment outside Finnish borders.

He added that Finland “is not in a war economy” and only at step three out of nine on its escalation ladder, but also noted that being prepared is “in our DNA”.

“Russia respects power,” Heiskanen told the FT. “Power consists of both the will and the capacity. The will is in place. The people’s will to defend the country is probably the highest in the world.”

Finland has also signed a defence cooperation agreement (DCA) with the United States, which could — under the terms — see the US military store its weapons in Finland.

Although the pact was signed at the end of last year, the government has not yet brought the agreement to parliament to be passed into Finnish law.

Photo courtesy of Puolustusvoimat – Försvarsmakten

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