Finland's Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced that his country is initiating the procedure to denounce the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction of 1997 (the Ottawa Treaty; the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention).
According to the Finnish publication Yle, Orpo made the relevant statement on April 1 at a government briefing.
According to him, the aggressor country russia poses a long-term threat to both Finland and the whole of Europe. Therefore, European countries must take greater responsibility for their own security.
Orpo emphasized that denunciation of the Ottawa Convention will allow Finland to "prepare more flexibly" for changes in the security sector.
He also announced that the country will begin reforming its land forces.
This will lead to an increase in defense spending by 3% of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2029. The corresponding decision was made by the government's economic policy committee.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on March 18, the defense ministers of Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia issued a joint statement in which they announced that their countries intend to withdraw from the Ottawa Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention.
Later, the Polish Ministry of Defense announced plans to produce a million anti-personnel mines in order to install them on the border with russia and Belarus.
And on March 23, Lithuanian Defense Minister Dovile Šakaliene announced that her country would also fence itself off from russia with a "wall" of mines.
Who we are: About us, Contacts. How we write news and our principles: Editorial code. We did our best. If you found this valuable – please support us.
To request a correction, please send an email.