Finnish lawmakers voted on Wednesday to overturn a Cold War-era total ban on nuclear devices, which the Finnish government says will strengthen the NATO alliance and offer the country better security.
Nuclear weapons are a contentious issue in Finland. But now, in exceptional cases, Finland will allow nuclear explosives to be imported into, transported through or held in the country.
Finland joined NATO in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and has been warily eyeing its neighbor as Russian forces beef up bases and build military infrastructure near their 830-mile border. Top Finnish officials argued that overturning the ban would allow Finland to take fuller advantage of NATO’s protection and better suit the needs of the mutual-defense alliance.
“This historic reform strengthens the security of Finland and of NATO as a whole,” Antti Hakkanen, the Finnish defense minister, wrote on social media after the vote.
“By dismantling the Cold War-era total ban on nuclear explosives, we are aligning our legislation with that of our closest NATO allies,” he said in a separate post before the vote.
The weapons would only be allowed into Finnish territory to defend the country, or to enable NATO’s defense operations and cooperation.
The measure, which passed 125 to 61, repealed an earlier provision that had prohibited all forms of nuclear explosives on Finnish soil. The restrictions date back to the 1980s, when many in Finland feared that the Soviet Union could take advantage of a post-World War II treaty that allowed Moscow to exercise significant influence over the country’s domestic and foreign policy.
Fears of nuclear proliferation run deep in Finland and the country had avoided joining NATO for generations, wary of angering Moscow. But spurred by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Nordic country of six million became a NATO member in 2023 and its border with Russia became the longest in the alliance.
Despite its small population, Finland already has one of Europe’s strongest militaries and a whole-of-society focus on emergency preparedness and defense. Its soldiers have already taught other Western troops to fight in Arctic conditions.
This month, NATO opened a new land force between Finland and Sweden, which joined the alliance in 2024.
