France to station troops in Nordics for NATO mission

France will contribute troops to a Swedish-led NATO mission in Finland, the three countries said Wednesday.

"France will contribute with ground forces deployments to rotations of FLF (Forward Land Forces) Finland, including a battle unit," the countries said in a joint statement without specifying the size of the contribution.

France would also provide training for the mission which was formally established in June and is aimed at boosting defences around the alliance's newest members.

"Our soldiers will take part in ensuring security in the High North. Day after day, we are giving substance to this stronger Europe within a stronger NATO," French President Emmanuel Macron said in a post to X.

Following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden abandoned decades of military non-alignment to join NATO, in 2023 and 2024 respectively.

"Over the past year, the defence ministers of the Nordic countries, the United Kingdom, France and Italy have announced that they will contribute to the development of FLF Finland, and now, together with France, we have been able to move forward on the troop contribution," Finnish Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen said in a separate statement.

Speaking at a press conference in Ankara, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said he welcomed the French decision.

He added that "many details still needed to be worked out.

"We'll have to get back to you on exactly where the French contribution will physically be located," Kristersson told reporters, noting that the mission's area of operations covered the "northern part of three different countries."

The core of FLF Finland will be 600 Swedish soldiers based in the Swedish city of Boden and able to rapidly transfer to Rovaniemi in Finland.

NATO in 2024 decided to establish a new multinational rapid reaction presence in Finland. NATO has similar land units in Bulgaria, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia.