Nato not a cheap benefit

Finnish Army conscripts with the second Military Police Company during a training exercise in a suburb of Helsinki. After decades of going it alone in security issues, Finns are finding that life in a large alliance is complex, expensive and deeply political. — ©2023 The New York Times Company

BARELY a year after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland cast aside decades of military non-alignment and self-reliance and joined the Nato alliance.

That happened with breathtaking speed, as these matters go, but gaining membership may have been the easy part. Now comes the complicated process of integrating itself into the alliance and its requirement of collective defence – with all of its financial, legal and strategic hurdles.