The way to floorball training is 126 steps down a steel lattice staircase down a concrete shaft into the Helsinki underground. But Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock did not come down here to watch the teams shoot a white plastic ball at the red goals with plastic bats, similar to those used in ice hockey. Baerbock is here because the game will be played in one of Finland’s largest civil defense facilities, right under the capital, the Merihaka district.
The neon-lit halls, 90 meters underground, are bunkers that, in an emergency, offer 6,000 people protection from nuclear, biological, chemical or radiological attacks, but also from natural disasters or the effects of chemical accidents. The caverns, which have a filter system for the air and their own water supply, can be locked tightly with heavy blue steel gates.
Baerbock in a civil defense facility in Helsinki.
(Photo: Christophe Gateau/DPA)
At the bottom of the tunnel that leads here, yellow markings indicate where toilets would be set up in an emergency. There are also bunk beds with three levels made of metal profiles, covered with fir-green tarpaulins. People could stay here for a few days. Groceries are not stored, but all Finnish households are required to have 72 hours of food available at all times.
She praises the “comprehensive understanding of security”
In total, Finland has more than 50,000 shelters, most of them in private buildings; 4.8 million can stay in it with a population of about 5.5 million people. Baerbock praises the impressive civil protection concept, which makes it possible to protect one’s own citizens in everyday life – always and everywhere. Germany has some catching up to do; last year the federal states called for a “modern shelter concept” from the federal government; Interior Minister Nancy Faeser from the SPD is responsible.
Baerbock also finds words of praise for the “comprehensive understanding of security” in the Nordic countries – on Tuesday she is still traveling after talks with Finnish President Sauli Niinistö and the visit to an icebreaker that Finland operates as part of a fleet to secure its supplies on to Sweden to meet her new colleague Tobias Billström. The Greens politician also advocates taking security more broadly than just in military terms at home, where the federal government, under the auspices of the Federal Foreign Office, is still working on the country’s first national security strategy.
Actually, Baerbock would have liked to get it through the cabinet before the Munich Security Conference, which begins this Friday, but even a meeting of the departments involved at chief level with Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has not yet resulted in a final agreement. Civil protection is not even disputed between the Chancellery and the Foreign Office; It is the federal states that are resisting greater federal powers, as Baerbock is demanding as a consequence of the Ahr Valley flood, but also in order to be able to deal with the consequences of possible massive cyber attacks.
At the same time, Baerbock demands that, in view of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, spending on security should not only increase for the equipment of the Bundeswehr, but also for crisis prevention and diplomacy. However, there is still a need for discussion about this in the coalition; Chancellor Olaf Scholz would like to set NATO’s two percent target.
Sweden’s foreign minister greets them in fluent German
But Baerbock has also come to support Finland and Sweden’s desire to join NATO soon. The ratification by Hungary, but above all by Turkey, is still missing. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is currently blocking the move. “At the NATO summit in Madrid last summer, we jointly laid the foundation for accession. And of course we expect all NATO members to implement this decision without further delay,” she said at the press conference with her Finnish colleague Pekka Haavisto. According to Baerbock, the accessions should be completed by the next Alliance summit in July in the Lithuanian capital Vilnius – if possible simultaneously, she says.
Pekka Haavisto, Foreign Minister of Finland, with Annalena Baerbock.
(Photo: Christophe Gateau/DPA)
A decision on the possible participation in the tank alliance for the supply of leopard 2 The government in Helsinki has not yet made a deal with Ukraine, says Haavisto, who, like Baerbock, is a Green. However, he indicates that in addition to the delivery of around 200 German-made battle tanks from its own arsenal, Finland’s contribution could also be support services such as the delivery of ammunition, training and maintenance.
In Stockholm, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström welcomes them in fluent German and announces a donor conference for the earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria, which his government intends to organize in Stockholm in March in close coordination with Ankara; Sweden currently holds the rotating EU presidency. It remains to be seen whether this will appease Erdoğan.
Baerbock with Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billström in Stockholm.
(Photo: Thomas Koehler/Imago)
In any case, Billström would like to thank Germany for their resolute support for the planned NATO membership. Neither Sweden nor Finland could influence the decisions of the Turkish parliament, he said when asked about NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s statement that the main thing is not that the two countries join at the same time, but that the countries join as soon as possible can.
Baerbock at least certifies that Sweden has fulfilled the steps agreed with Turkey at the NATO summit in Madrid. The joint accession of both countries is in the interest of the NATO countries. The Baltic Sea is a shared habitat that has been challenged by Russia’s attack on Ukraine. That prompted Sweden to give up its neutrality after almost 200 years of non-alignment.