Summary
Finland will exit the 1997 Ottawa landmine treaty and increase defence spending to 3% of GDP by 2029 in response to the growing threat from Russia, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo announced.
The move aligns Finland with Poland and the Baltic states, which also plan to leave the treaty.
Finland joined NATO in 2023 and shares NATO’s longest border with Russia.
Officials emphasized landmines as a necessary deterrent. The decision, backed by major parties, allows renewed stockpiling and marks a major shift in Finland’s defence posture.
Thanks Trump and Putin. Just what future generations of children need, more fucking landmines. /s
Yes. Every country on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea has recently left the land mine ban.
Unlike Ukraine, we don’t have hundreds of kilometers of space for a strategic retreat. So if signs start indicating that an invasion might come, border areas will have mine fields.
If it comforts anyone: many modern land mines have electronic detonators. They can be designed to become inert after a set amount of time, or when their battery runs out of juice. Old models had mechanical / piezo detonators, and could survive decades in the right conditions.
I can’t help myself, I’m glad that EU countries recognize the threat and arm themselves.
Have you noticed that most “Say No To War” people - then and now - claim to be “unpolitical”? In other words, follow a gut feeling instead of forming an informed opinion? That was me in the distant past. And I see people around me talk like that.
Yes, it feels nicer. But they open themselves wide to hybrid warfare disinformation tactics, unless they make the effort of informing themselves. Until then, please have the courage to say “I don’t have enough information to have an opinion about this topic”.As for specifically Finland and specifically this treaty:
The move aligns Finland with Poland and the Baltic states, which also plan to leave the treaty.
This makes sense.
The EU should’ve listened to the Baltic states’ Russia policies decades ago.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero_Landmine had a beautiful song that was composed by Ryuichi Sakamoto, and involved a bunch of famous musical artists. https://youtu.be/_CQXI01usj0
So, when we don’t need anti-personnel landmines, then they are bad, and other nations should not use them. When we do need them, their use becomes acceptable.
Is that about right?
I think it’s a good point. The hypocrisy and double standards have really come to the fore in the past 3 years.
However, I think it’s partially due to a lack of empathy/inability to understand the desperation that drives some parts of the war machine, survive at any cost.
Land mines are a horror of war that bite long after the conflict ends. They are also one of the most cost effective ways of slowing/containing a large scale enemy assault.
Personally, I don’t know where I stand on this news, existential threats shift viewpoints drastically.
I think it’s fair to say: we should not use landmines, we should wish for other countries to not use them. However, I don’t think that they should be demonised. And they should be used as “reasonably” as possible. (E.g. securing a border or military base, not near a residential area). Of course when survival comes into play, soldiers will do what they feel they need to at the end of the day, and who are we to judge from the comfort of our screens?
Well, Russia uses them anyway, I guess that’s the reasoning.
Finland has a long border to cover
No.
Thanks?
Apparently. Let future generations deal with them.
Yeah. I realize that landmines have terrible consequences in times of peace. I also realize the Finns don’t want to lose territory to Russia (again). It just seems hypocritical to me to be against something when you have no use for it and then do an about face.
I agree. Landmines are never ok.
