Finland is the latest country to join France’s nuclear umbrella, having finalized a deal with Paris earlier this week. This sounds like there will be nuclear weapons in Finland, a country that shares a 1,340-kilometer-long border with Russia and has an historic rivalry with it (see the Winter War).
Thankfully, Finland’s president, Alexander Stubbs, has clarified that no nuclear weapons will be stationed in his country. Instead, the agreement is meant to have Finnish conventional and French nuclear capabilities coordinate and communicate with each other in the event of a conflict between NATO and Russia.
This is good news. The fewer nuclear weapons out in the world and the more communication between countries over them, the better, especially in countries so close to a rival country also armed with nuclear weapons. Otherwise, doing so would increase the odds of miscalculation and false alarms, inadvertent escalation.
Europeans should be protected, preferably by themselves. But they should do so responsibly. What this would look like is a combination of strengthening their non-nuclear military capabilities to deter Russia and negotiating with Russia to create a stable system in Europe, such as the establishment of non-aligned armed buffer states.
It’s a common-sense middle course between a Curtis LeMay-like bombs-away approach and one that surrenders to Putin. It’s diplomacy, and something the world, especially the Trump administration with its mishandling of the situation in Iran, needs reminding of.