Defence cooperation intensified in stages

In 2014, the Swedish and Finnish defence ministers signed an action plan on deepening cooperation between Finland and Sweden. 

In July 2018, the two countries’ defence ministers signed a memorandum of understanding on defence cooperation. This memorandum of understanding specified a number of prioritised areas of cooperation, including measures to establish conditions for joint military action in various scenarios, intensified political and military dialogue, exercise and training activities, cooperation on asserting each country’s territorial integrity, cooperation concerning access to each country’s territory and host nation support.

In 2022, Sweden and Finland signed a bilateral host nation agreement aimed at establishing even better conditions for cooperation between the countries’ armed forces when operating on each other’s territory in times of peace, crisis and war. The host nation agreement establishes conditions for our countries’ cooperation on territorial surveillance and assertion of territorial integrity. 

Enabling joint operations in times of peace, crisis and war is a central objective of this cooperation. Since October 2020, the Government has enjoyed the right to decide whether to provide or receive military support within the scope of the cooperation. This concerns decisions to deploy Swedish armed forces to assist Finland in preventing violations of Finnish territory and decisions to receive military support in the form of military forces from Finland, in part to prevent violations of Swedish territory and in part to respond to an armed attack against Sweden. The Act on operational military support (2020:782) authorises the Government to take such decisions.