Norwegian Defense Minister Bjørn Arild Gram previously referred to this possibility. The commander of our defense forces recommended forming this command in Finland, the official said, quoted by the newspaper IltaLehti.

Thus, in peacetime the aforementioned general staff, located in this nation, with a 1,400-kilometer border with Russia, will plan and carry out NATO educational activities in the region, the digital version of the newspaper highlighted.

The facility, just 140 kilometers from Russia and where the so-called high combat readiness staff would operate, would also work 24 hours a day and would be subordinated to the Norfolk staff, on the eastern shore of the United States.

The issue of the general staff will be included in the agenda of the summit of the Atlantic alliance, to be held next July in Washington, the newspaper notes.

Finland and Sweden put aside their neutral policy to request membership in the North Atlantic bloc, under the pretext that Russia, involved in a military operation in Ukraine, constituted a supposed threat to Europe.

ef/npg/to