Three ships from the military alliance Nato will visit Finland over the next week. After a weekend in Helsinki, the maritime rapid action group will train with the Finnish Coastal Fleet.
Standing Nato Maritime Group 1 (SNMG1) is to visit Helsinki from Friday through Monday. After casting off from Helsinki, the group will take part in a joint exercise staged by the Finnish Coastal Fleet – the first such joint exercise since Finland became an observer member of Nato.
Since Finland and Sweden applied to join nearly six months ago, their membership has been approved by all but two of the current members, with Hungary and Turkey the sole holdouts. Unanimous consent is needed to join the 30-member alliance. Since May, Finnish forces have been frequently involved in joint exercises with Nato groups.
After the port visit, the Coastal Fleet will organise a two-day joint naval manoeuvre in the Gulf of Finland and the Northern Baltic. Known as a Passing Exercise, it is aimed at developing near-shore interoperability between the Nato force and Finnish Navy vessels.
Weekend in Hernesaari
The three SNMG1 vessels will be docked over the weekend at Hernesaari harbour in southwest Helsinki. However they will not be open to public during their stay.
The visiting ships are the flagship, frigate HNLMS Tromp of the Royal Netherlands Navy, frigate HDMS Esbern Snare of the Royal Danish Navy and supply ship HNOMS Maud of the Royal Norwegian Navy.
For the exercise the Nato force will be joined by the FNS Tornio, a 51-metre missile boat based at the Upinniemi naval base in Kirkkonummi.
The visit is hosted by the Commander of the Finnish Coastal Fleet, Captain (Navy) Patrik Lillqvist.
"The Coastal Fleet and SNMG1 have been training together after similar visits for many years, but this is the first time we train together since Finland became an official invitee of the Alliance. We have developed our interoperability to a large extent," said Lillqvist in a Finnish Defence Forces handout on Wednesday.
"Finland has been a longstanding Nato partner. Cooperation and integration with Finland is a force multiplier in an area of strategic importance. The visit of our Nato Task Group to Helsinki and our training with the Finnish armed forces will add to this process," said Commander of the SNMG1, Commodore Jeanette Morang of the Royal Netherlands Navy in the statement.
