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Replacement of Finland's top defence planner raises questions among regional observers

Xinhua, September 11, 2015 Adjust font size:

With the Baltic Sea basin's strategic importance growing, the ousting of a key planner of Finland's defence policies of recent years on Thursday must have raised eyebrows amongst international observers of the area.

The replacement of Lt. General Arto Raty by the engineer general Jukka Juusti as the top civil servant at the Ministry of Defence was preceded by a two-week political havoc, as the conservatives in the cabinet delayed the appointment.

The Defence Ministry's internal documents leaked to the media indicated a real effort to justify a change in the high ranking post. Raty, with his good personal network with NATO and the United States, had been widely expected to be in the position for another five years.

Defence Minister Jussi Niinisto underlines the importance of maintaining independent national defence and he is critical of the idea of Finland joining NATO.

Niinisto, taking the Defence Minister's position in May this year, has caught attention on several issues. In addition to sending away the key planner of the present defence policies, he has talked about restoration of the pre-2012 strength of the war time forces - 350,000 soldiers.

The minister also discussed publically the vulnerable location of the Aaland Islands, an autonomy region within Finland's territory.

Military policy analyst Kari Huhta of the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat wrote during the debate that the continuity in Finnish defence policy would not be so clear now.

While the debate about the upcoming change in personnel continued in Finland, news came from Sweden that the country's centre party had switched into supporting membership of NATO. Sweden joining NATO would deprive Finland of the now keenly underlined military cooperation with Sweden.

Huhta noted that change of stand of the Swedish centre party made a Swedish NATO membership a more tangible alternative albeit not likely in the immediate future.

"It is normal that Finland and Sweden alternate in gravitating towards NATO, but this requires accuracy in Finland", Huhta cautioned.

Local media commented on Thursday that good personal networking with NATO and the U.S. or even with Sweden is suddenly no longer an asset for advancement of career in the defence branch in Finland, at least for the tenure of the current government.

Talking to the media on Thursday, Defence Minister Niinisto said that both Finland and Sweden are "equally married to U.S. military technology". The newly appointed permanent secretary Jukka Juusti said he in his previous role as resources director kept close contact with the Pentagon as well. Endit