Warships from three NATO countries will exercise in Finland.
(Baonghean.vn) - According to the Finnish Navy, American, French and German warships will stay in Helsinki until May 30. All of these ships are participating in exercises in the northern Baltic Sea area, an event taking place in the context of both Finland and Sweden recently applying to join NATO.
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Helsinki (Finland). Photo: AP |
Specifically, two US Navy ships, USS Gravely and USS Gunston Hall, and the French Navy ship Latouche-Tréville will visit Helsinki from May 27-30. These ships will dock at Hernesaari port in Helsinki, where the German Navy ship FGS Sachsen docked earlier this week.
Finland and Sweden submitted their applications to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on May 18. Türkiye had previously blocked the start of the review process for the applications. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara could not say "yes" to Finland and Sweden's membership in NATO because it could not trust guarantees about its ties with representatives of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party.
For its part, Russia has repeatedly noted that NATO has confrontational aims. Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of the President of the Russian Federation, stated that further expansion of the alliance will not bring more security to Europe, because NATO is aggressive in nature. At the same time, Mr. Peskov noted that Moscow does not consider Sweden and Finland joining NATO as an existential threat to Russia. Meanwhile, President Vladimir Putin noted that abandoning Finland's traditional policy of military neutrality would be a mistake, since there has been no threat to the country's security so far.