NATO Maritime ships arrive in Helsinki on Friday

Standing NATO Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) will visit Helsinki port from Friday to Monday, said Finnish Defence Forces in a press release on Wednesday.

The ships will stay over the weekend in the Hernesaari harbor. The visiting ships are the flagship, frigate HNLMS Tromp, frigate HDMS Esbern Snare and supply ship HNOMS Maud.

The ships, however, will not remain open to the people during their stay.

After the port visit, Coastal Fleet will organize a Passing Exercise (PASSEX), a joint naval exercise, which aims at developing interoperability between the NATO-force and Finnish Navy vessels in the vicinity of seashore on November 7 and 8.

For the exercise the NATO-force will be joined by FNS Tornio. The exercise will take place in the Gulf of Finland and in the Northern Baltic Sea.

“Coastal Fleet and SNMG1 have been training together after similar visits for many years, but this is the first time we train together since Finland became an official invitee of the Alliance. We have developed our interoperability to a large extent,” said Commander of the Coastal Fleet, Captain (Navy) Patrik Lillqvist, who will host the visit.

“Finland has been a longstanding NATO partner. Cooperation and integration with Finland is a force multiplier in an area of strategic importance. The visit of our NATO Task Group to Helsinki and our training with the Finnish armed forces will add to this process,” said Commander of the SNMG1, Commodore Jeanette Morang.