United Kingdom offers Finland a nuclear umbrella — YLE News

The United Kingdom has offered Finland and other countries of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) a nuclear umbrella as part of a broader defence agreement. YLE News reports.

The proposal was confirmed during a visit to Finland by the First Sea Lord and Chief of the Naval Staff of the United Kingdom, Admiral Sir Gwyn Jenkins. He met with Heikki Autto, chair of the Finnish Parliament’s Defence Committee.

The agreement is planned to be signed in Oslo

According to YLE, JEF members are expected to sign the agreement at a meeting in Oslo in November. The UK-led defence partnership includes the Nordic countries, the Baltic states, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

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A nuclear umbrella means a security guarantee provided by a state with nuclear weapons to an ally that does not possess them. Autto told the Finnish news agency STT that the British naval commander had stressed London’s firm commitment to cooperation within the JEF, creating new opportunities.

Separate from the NATO mechanism

The planned arrangement envisages a separate nuclear umbrella outside NATO’s extended deterrence strategy, which is provided to the Alliance’s non-nuclear members by the United States, the United Kingdom and France. In an interview with Iltalehti, Jenkins said that Finland’s security under the nuclear umbrella would be guaranteed by British submarines currently patrolling the Atlantic.

As Iltalehti notes, the JEF mechanism would not require the activation of NATO’s Article 5, under which an attack on one Alliance member is considered an attack on all. Earlier this month, Finland also joined the French nuclear deterrence initiative, which does not provide for a separate nuclear umbrella.