Jussi Saramo of the Left Alliance spoke during a question-time debate in the Parliament House in Helsinki on 23 November 2023. Saramo on Thursday told Helsingin Sanomat that the Finnish-US defence co-operation agreement, which was unveiled on Thursday, must be examined with lawyers to determine the circumstances in which jurisdiction in criminal cases involving US troops can be returned to Finland. (Markku Ulander – Lehtikuva)
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JUSSI SARAMO, the chairperson of the Left Alliance Parliamentary Group, hopes there will be due parliamentary process for the defence co-operation agreement (DCA) published between Finland and the US on Thursday.
Saramo on Thursday stated to Helsingin Sanomat that the agreement must be analysed with lawyers to ascertain, for instance, the circumstances in which jurisdiction is returned to Finland in cases where a US soldier has committed a crime in Finland.
Finland has agreed to in principle relinquish jurisdiction in cases where both countries have jurisdiction, but it can call for the return of jurisdiction in cases involving criminal acts that are of special significance.
Saramo also viewed that the agreement should have included a clause concerning the temporary storage of nuclear weapons in Finland, similarly to the agreement between Norway and the US. The Finnish-US agreement instead refers to the need to honour both national legislation and international obligations, of which the former prohibits the import of nuclear explosives.
“This is specifically a question of us handing over some of our sovereignty in some domains,” he argued. “We know that there are parties in parliament who’d be ready to place nuclear weapons in Finland.”
As long as the nuclear energy act is not amended, he viewed, the agreement will not change anything in regards to nuclear weapons.
The Finnish government has estimated that the bilateral agreement will strengthen both national security and defence capabilities. It is a framework agreement designed to enable the seamless operation of US troops in Finland: they, for example, do not require a passport to enter and will have access to 15 military areas in the country.
Saramo argued that it is important to focus not on the number of military areas but on the type of activities that will take place in the areas.
“It’s absolutely crucial that we know what’s going on in Finland, and that nothing is going on that could be harmful to us,” he said to the newspaper. “It has to be an agreement that increases, not decreases, security in a way that bring no additional tensions to our territory.”
He also cautioned against being naive about the agreement due to its collaborative nature. “I hope and also plead with other parties that this won’t be an open-and-shut case,” he said.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen (NCP) on Thursday estimated that the facilitatory effect of the agreement will be useful in peacetime but absolutely critical in a time of crisis. Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen (NCP) viewed that, together with Nato membership, the agreement will form such a robust deterrent that no one will “dare to pressure or destabilise” Finland.
“If a neighbour […] knows that we’ve got these kinds of plans ready, on advance storage and whatnot, the deterrence is pretty high for even trying,” he viewed.
The Left Alliance is virtually the only party that has aired some reservations about the agreement, which was finalised by officials earlier this year after an over year-long process. Saramo on Thursday told Helsingin Sanomat that the parliamentary group has yet to discuss the agreement, let alone adopt a common position on it.
“We want that this will be discussed properly in parliament before we form our position,” he said.
Finland and the US are scheduled to sign the agreement in conjunction with Valtonen’s meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington DC on Monday, 18 December. The Finnish government’s proposal for approving the agreement will be submitted to parliament for discussion following a comment period.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
