More and more countries of the European Union want to use anti -human mines to protect their boundaries from what they believe to be a possible invasion by Russia by Vladimir Putin. That of Finland is only the last government of the blockade to have announced that it wants to withdraw from the Ottawa Convention, which prohibits these armaments. Poland and Baltic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, had already announced last month that they will retire from the treaty due to the military threat from Moscow.
Prepare for different contexts
Leaving the 1997 convention, Finland, which protects the longest border of NATO with Russia, as many as 1,340 kilometers, could start to make up of mines to have them at hand in case of need. Premier Petteri Orpo said that there is no immediate military threat for his country, but that Russia represents a long -term threat throughout Europe.
“The withdrawal from the Ottawa Convention will give us the opportunity to prepare for changes in the safety context in a more versatile way,” he said. Orpo has also announced that Helsinki will increase the expense for defense to at least 3% of the gross domestic product by 2029 and that the expenditure for that date will grow by around 3 billion euros.
The Ottawa Convention
The Ottawa Convention was one of the many international agreements concluded after the end of the Cold War to encourage global disarmament, precisely in 1997. In the same year, activists against mines won the Nobel Peace Prize. More than 160 nations signed the agreement, but among these there are no Russia, the United States, China, India and Israel. Over the years, the mines have killed or mutilated tens of thousands of civilians all over the world, many of which even after the end of the conflicts.
Finland, Poland, Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia all share a terrestrial border with Russia or Belarus and for this reason they are the most worried nations for the possibility of a conflict. None of them have yet made the withdrawal official, because legislative passages are needed.
Poland declared that it could withdraw from the agreement by approving a law in Parliament and obtaining the approval of the president, followed by a formal notification to the United Nations. In Estonia, the government must propose the law and Parliament must vote for it, while in Lithuania the president will have to propose to the Parliament to leave the agreement and three fifth of the deputies will have to support the move.
The bunch bombs
In addition to the Ottawa Convention, in 2008 the convention on bunch ammunition was also adopted, explosive weapons that release smaller sub -munitions on a large area. Like terrestrial mines, these weapons do not distinguish between fighters and civilians. The United States, who did not sign the agreement, in 2023 transferred to the bunch ammunition to Ukraine to help her defend herself from Russia. A decision that has aroused several controversies and concerns.
