Finland withdrawing from a 1997 treaty against the use of land mines

 

Finland says it’s withdrawing from a 1997 treaty against the use of land mines, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced Tuesday in Helsinki. “Withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention will give us the possibility to prepare for the changes in the security environment in a more versatile way,” he told reporters, according to Reuters.

 Just last month, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania each announced they, too, were exiting the treaty because “Military threats to NATO member states bordering Russia and Belarus have significantly increased,” the four Baltic states said in a joint statement. “In light of this unstable security environment marked by Russia’s aggression and its ongoing threat to the Euro-Atlantic community, it is essential to evaluate all measures to strengthen our deterrence and defense capabilities,” the four nations’ defense ministers said.

 Fine print: “Leaving the treaty will require approval by the Finnish parliament but is expected to pass given widespread support among government and opposition parties,” Reuters notes. “More than 160 countries and territories are party to the Ottawa Treaty, including Ukraine. Neither the United States nor Russia are signatories,” Agence France-Presse adds.

 By the way, “Norway is restoring [two of] its Cold War military bunkers,” the BBC reported Sunday. “At the peak of the Cold War, the sparsely populated, mountainous country had around 3,000 underground facilities where its armed forces and allies could hide and make life difficult for any invader.”

The two that are re-opening are the Bardufoss Air Station and the naval base at Olavsvern. “Carved out of a mountain side, protected by around 900ft (275m) of tough gabbro rock, the Olasvern base is particularly evocative with its 3,000ft-long (909m) exit tunnel complete with massive blast door,” the BBC reports. The facility at Bardufoss offers excellent protection from drone attacks targeting military aircraft, as Russia’s Ukraine invasion has highlighted.

 “The reason for the reactivation of these bases is simple: Russia,” the BBC writes.