Finland has traditionally promoted nuclear disarmament and a nuclear weapons free world. Finland was one the first countries to sign NPT and in the 60’s and 70’s our president Urho Kekkonen advocated that the Nordic countries should be nuclear weapon free. In our Nuclear Energy Act (from 1987) there is a paragraph prohibiting the import, manufacturing and possessing of nuclear weapons.

Before we joined NATO last year, there were open-minded discussions on the Treaty to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), and whether Finland should join it. Three of our parties, the Left League, Social Democrats and the Greens support the TPNW at this time. In 2018, the Foreign Affairs Committee of Finnish Parliament stated that Finland is open to the TPNW, does not view it as being in contradiction with NPT, and follows the situation closely, especially regarding how Sweden reacts. Finland took part as an observer in the first meeting of state parties (MSP) in 2022.

Russian’s unlawful attack on Ukraine in February 2022 changed the atmosphere in Finland almost overnight. The vast majority of politicians and citizens began to support Finland joining NATO. This took place in April 2023. Our prime minister then declared that now NATO’s nuclear weapons protect us (?!). No reservations were formulated. We were told that the Nuclear Energy Act prohibits nukes anyway, so we don’t require any additional conditions.

After joining NATO, the official attitude towards TPNW has changed (also there was a change of government, now very conservative). Finland did not send observers to the second MSP in 2023. In their justification, the government claimed that TPNW is contradictory to NATO membership (despite several other NATO countries having previously attended as observers) and that TPNW weakens NPT (which of course is not true). This is in stark contrast to the parliamentary statement of 2018.

One of our parliamentarians recently tabled a parliamentary question on Finland’s changed nuclear weapons’ policy and its participation in nuclear military exercises. In their answer, the government repeated that signing TPNW would be contradictory to NATO membership, but this time they did not mention NPT. They reiterated all the usual NATO phrases on deterrence and nuclear weapons protecting Finland. The government justified Finland’s participation in NATO’s military exercise Steadfast Noon as an important part of NATO’s deterrence, saying that taking part is good signalling of NATO unity. We (IPPNW and ICAN) wrote a letter on Steadfast Noon to the editor of our main newspaper which was published, but otherwise there has not been much public discussion on this.

Even so, in a recent poll by the Finnish Red Cross, 90 % of Finns do not approve using nuclear weapons in any circumstances, and 62 % want Finland to join the TPNW.

Our main concern has been the adoption of the Nuclear Energy Act. There are plans to build small modular nuclear power plants in Finland and this has required changing the legislature concerning safety areas and license procedures. The idea has been brought up in the discussion that also the paragraph prohibiting nuclear explosions could be deleted. The amendments will come to the parliament in Spring 2026.

Fortunately, at the moment it looks like the prohibition of nuclear weapons will remain in the updated law. Our Conservative prime minister has stated this, and the chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Parliament has also assured us that the prohibition will stay. This is something we have been working hard on and I hope these promises will hold.

In any case, it seems as though Finland is abandoning its previous status as a country that promotes peace and disarmament. We in the peace movement are trying to oppose this, but it has not been easy. Especially given that the current government has cut all financial support to every peace organisation which has existed for decades. We live in hard times, but we will not surrender.

Kati Juva
ICAN Finland, coordinator, IPPNW co-president

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