Finland has been long planning to store some of its military equipment and defense capabilities out of Russia’s reach, according to Finnish officials.
Jarmo Lindberg, a member of the parliament and formerly chief of defense, told Breaking Defense on Monday that the decision to store war materials in Norway and Sweden was prompted by Moscow’s use of long-range munitions to target Ukraine’s military facilities.
Since “Russia is capable of doing that, then maybe you need to have some of your capabilities a bit further away from the Russian border,” he said. The Nordic state shares a land border with Russia in the east.
Lindberg disclosed that while the Finnish government had forged a storage deal with NATO founding member Norway years earlier, Finland’s accession to the military alliance in July 2023 simplified the arrangement.
Janne Kuusela, Finland’s defense policy director general, affirmed that the Nordic nations’ NATO connection removed many obstacles, allowing Helsinki to “do what’s wise.”
“We have much more strategic depth now in our cooperation, and we can kind of plan things Nordic-wide in a unified way,” he said in a talk at the U.S. Embassy in Helsinki.
The two officials made the remarks following Finish Deputy Chief for Armaments and Logistics Lt. Gen. Mikko Heiskanen’s revelations Monday of the government’s plans to disperse defense stocks in other countries for increased security.
“We have partially started it already. We plan to do it especially with Sweden and Norway, but also with further-away countries. It’s equipment and ammunition and maybe spare parts,” Heiskanen was quoted as saying.