Finland is planning to hold an Aurora style exercise in 2020 with participation from Sweden, United States and others. Aurora was a Swedish exercise that was held in September and involved 19,000 troops.
Finnish defense minister Jussi Niinisto explained that the exercise will gather conscripts, reservists, and soldiers to practice. “If there’s a crisis, it will be good for us to practice receiving help,” said Niinisto according to Reuters.
The announcement of the exercise comes in the midst of an increased debate in Finland about the country’s relationship with NATO. The planned exercise in receiving foreign forces on Finnish soil shows that Finland sees NATO as an important strategic partner, but for the time being there is not much reason to believe that Finland will become an official member of the alliance.
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