Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi will meet his Finnish counterpart next week, with the two expected to discuss Helsinki’s recent decision to revise a law allowing nuclear weapons into Finland — a decision that came as Japan weighs a similar shift in policy.
Koizumi will hold talks next Monday with Finnish Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen in Tokyo, the Defense Ministry said Friday. The meeting comes after Finland in March amended decades-old laws to allow the stationing of nuclear weapons on its soil, in a move Helsinki said aligns more closely with NATO’s deterrence policy amid Russia’s more than 4-year-old war against Ukraine.
“In recent years, Finland has been pursuing a fundamental strengthening of its security policy,” Koizumi told reporters Friday. “One example of this is a legislative amendment allowing the introduction of nuclear weapons.”