France's Chief of Defence, General Fabien Mandon, is visiting Finland on 1–2 June for talks on defence cooperation, joint exercises, and operational interoperability between the two countries. The visit takes place at the invitation of Finland's Chief of Defence, General Janne Jaakkola.

According to a press release from the Finnish Defence Forces (Puolustusvoimat), the programme includes visits to the Finnish Border Guard (Rajavartiolaitos) and the European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats (Hybrid CoE), as well as a joint address to participants from the French Institut des hautes études de défense nationale (IHEDN, the French Institute for Higher Studies in National Defence), who are simultaneously conducting a visit to Finland.

In the press release, the Finnish Defence Forces emphasise that bilateral cooperation with France has, in recent years, increasingly focused on exercise and training activities conducted in Finland.

As an example, the Northern Star exercise, which concluded at the end of May, is cited. During that exercise, French battalions trained alongside Finnish units under northern conditions. According to the Finnish Defence Forces, French army units have been actively participating in exercises in Finland since Cold Response earlier this spring in Norway, as NDS has reported.

According to Finland's Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen, defence cooperation between the two countries is expected to deepen further. In a post on X, he states that France has decided to participate in the multinational ground force concept Forward Land Forces (FLF) Finland in northern Finland.

"We will, among other things, increase exercise cooperation between our countries, and France has decided to participate in the ground force contingent FLF Finland in northern Finland," Häkkänen writes.

Häkkänen also states that the parties continued discussions on France's initiative regarding extended nuclear deterrence in Europe.

"We are currently gathering information and evaluating the initiative," he writes.