Russia summons Finnish envoy over defence co-op deal with US

Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned Finland’s ambassador Antti Helantera after Washington and Helsinki concluded a defense cooperation agreement, reported Russian state-owned news agency TASS, quoting Foreign Ministry's spokesperson of Russia Maria Zakharova.

"On December 19, the Finnish ambassador to Moscow was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry to be told that the Russian side will not leave unnoticed NATO’s military build-up on our border, which threatens the security of Russia, and will take the necessary measures to counter aggressive decisions by Finland and its NATO allies. The responsibility for turning the zone of good-neighborliness in this region into a zone of likely confrontation lies entirely with the current Finnish authorities," said the report, quoting the statement of Zakharova as saying.

Zakharova warned that Russia would take measures to counter aggressive decisions by Finland and NATO.

Zakharova noted that the agreement regulated quantitative parameters, transportation and deployment of US military personnel, their use of military bases, and storage of weapons on Finnish territory.

"It is noteworthy that the provisions of the agreement do not contain any restrictions on their types, including nuclear weapons, which will be used for its implementation, as well as actually place the US military contingent stationed in Finland outside the Finnish legal space," added.

Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen and United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken on December 18 signed a bilateral Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) between Finland and USA in Washington DC.