Four warships of the NATO member countries – the USA, Germany and France entered the port of the capital of Finland.
American and German ships took part in military exercises in the Baltic Sea.
This is reported by Radio Liberty with reference to Yle.
The Finnish Navy believes that interest in their country has increased, the newspaper writes, and these visits are regarded as a sign of support for Finland, which recently applied for NATO membership.
Defence Minister Antti Kaikkonen noted that the visit of these ships was agreed even before Finland has decided to apply for membership in the North Atlantic Alliance, but the presence of allied ships in Finnish territorial waters, he says, sends a strong signal.
“The new exercises are part of the preparations for the” gray period “and Russia's possible disruption of the NATO application and membership approval,” the Finnish defense minister said.
On May 27, the Finnish Defense Ministry announced that the country was increasing the number of international military exercises. For the rest of 2022, another 20 different exercises are planned, of which 8 are new.
Recall, Sweden and Finland officially applied to join NATO on May 18.
