In addition, the working group assesses the key impacts of the DCA. The agreement’s actual effects will depend on the extent of the future defence cooperation between Finland and the United States and on the number of U.S. forces entering the territory of Finland. The DCA would not mean a permanent presence of U.S. forces in Finland; as a rule, U.S. forces would be present in Finland on a rotational basis.
Finland and the United States signed a Defence Cooperation Agreement in Washington DC on 18 December 2023. A draft government proposal to Parliament on the acceptance of the agreement was sent out for comments on 28 March 2024. The draft proposal was prepared by a wide-ranging cross-government working group, led by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.
In the draft government proposal, the working group assesses the DCA provisions on matters such as U.S. forces’ entry into and movement in Finland and U.S. forces’ access to and use of the facilities and areas of the Defence Forces provided for joint use. There are 15 such facilities and areas, and they are listed in the Annex to the agreement. The DCA also contains provisions on prepositioned materiel, the safety and security of U.S. forces, criminal jurisdiction, and the legal status of U.S. forces and U.S. contractors.
The draft government proposal also includes amendments to several related acts of different branches of government.
Ministry for Foreign Affairs:
Inquiries
- Kaija Suvanto, Director General of the Legal Service, chair of the working group, tel. +358 295 351 159
- Minna Laajava, Director, Unit for Security Policy and Crisis Management, tel. +358 295 350 128
Ministry of Defence:
- Anna Korhola, Senior Specialist, Legal Affairs, tel. +358 29 514 0319
- Tuomas Koskenniemi, Ministerial Adviser, tel. +358 295 140 058
Finnish Defence Forces:
- Lieutenant Colonel Timo Hänninen, media.puolustusvoimat@mil.fi
- The email addresses of the ministries are in the format firstname.lastname@gov.fi.
