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Finland has joined France’s Forward Nuclear Deterrence Initiative, bringing a country that shares a long border with Russia under Paris’s nuclear umbrella.

Getting into it: The announcement came Monday as part of a broader strategic partnership signed by the two countries’ foreign ministers in Helsinki. “Finland has decided to join forward deterrence,” the joint statement read, adding that a Nuclear Steering Group will be established in the coming months to begin implementing the cooperation. It described the move as offering “opportunities for strategic signalling, as well as the ability to manage escalation below the nuclear threshold.”

Finnish President Alexander Stubb framed it carefully. “The initiative is first and foremost about strengthening European security. It reinforces Europe’s responsibility for its own defense and helps prevent escalation,” he wrote on X. He stressed that it does not “replace or overlap with NATO’s nuclear deterrence,” that “Finland’s foremost priority is to act as part of NATO and the European Union,” and that Finland “does not intend to station nuclear weapons on its territory in peacetime.” He added that Helsinki had talked the decision through at length with Washington and NATO.

The structure differs from NATO’s in one significant way. Only the French president can authorize a nuclear strike, while NATO makes those plans collectively through its Nuclear Planning Group. Rather than a say in that decision, partner countries get a seat at joint drills, closer consultation with Paris and the option to host French nuclear-capable jets for short periods.

French President Emmanuel Macron launched the initiative in March with Germany, Poland, Greece, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and the UK on board. Norway joined in May. Finland is the 10th partner country. Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen called it a “natural step” after its Nordic neighbors signed on.

Estonia is in talks with Paris about joining. “This is not this kind of [initiative] that you just join… It needs certain capabilities, readiness and so on,” Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal told AFP. “We are under NATO’s nuclear umbrella already. And France is also backing up our independence with the troops in Estonia. So if the cooperation can be deeper in the nuclear field, that probably will go so.”

The move comes after Finland dropped its long-standing military neutrality and joined NATO in 2023 in response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In June, Finnish lawmakers went further, scrapping the country’s outright ban on nuclear weapons and allowing them to be imported, transported through, supplied or stored in Finland if its defense requires it.