Page:The Effects of Finland's Possible NATO Membership - An Assessment.pdf/9

 Powers”. Moscow never truly accepted Finnish neutrality and regarded the Friendship Treaty as the basis of its relations with Finland.

With early elections in March 1945 – while the Allies were still allied and unanimous in their support of free elections – Finland secured its political institutions and parliamentary democracy. The reorganised Security Police (1949) focused successfully on counterespionage. The last train carrying war reparations crossed the border in September 1952, a month after the closing ceremony of the Helsinki Summer Olympics. The unbroken military tradition and universal conscription allowed the Defence Forces to continue training a reserve force focused on territorial defence. Participating in UN Peacekeeping operations since 1956 has provided the Defence Forces with military contacts and experience. In order to prevent provocations, a border zone of three to five kilometres was established. The Border Guards remained a military organisation under the Ministry of the Interior in peacetime. The first major procurements from the Soviet Union, Sweden and the United Kingdom forced Finland to define basic rules of conduct. No military instructors from the seller country were accepted on Finnish soil. Instead, Finnish officers were sent abroad for training. Since the late 1950s, Finnish officers have studied at military colleges in France, Britain, Sweden and subsequently the United States (1964) and the Soviet Union (1971). By reinterpreting stipulations through diplomacy, the Defence Forces were able to cope with the military restrictions imposed by the Paris Peace Treaty.

Accomplished diplomacy was required to stabilise Finland’s position with Stalin’s successors. The superior Finnish social and economic system played a decisive role. Although Finland had to tread a fine line politically, its market economy was able to turn the regulated bilateral trade with the Soviet Union to its favour. Becoming an associate member of the European Free Trade Association in 1961 and concluding a free trade agreement with the European Economic Community in 1972 were milestones in cementing Finland as a Western country and society. The regulated bilateral trade that required the licensing of exports to the Soviet Union also provided the instrument to indirectly adhere to COCOM (Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls) export restrictions, which again was the prerequisite for acquiring Western technology and equipment for the Defence Forces.

The build-up of the Defence Forces was a long and protracted low-key process eschewing the expression “armed neutrality”. The first jet fighter planes, Folland Gnats, were bought from Britain in 1958, to be later replaced by Soviet MiGs and Swedish Drakens. Only with a shift of the Finnish defence focus to THE EFFECTS OF FINLAND'S POSSIBLE NATO MEMBERSHIP ● AN ASSESSMENT