By Anne Kauranen

HELSINKI (Reuters) -The United States is committed to deepening military cooperation with Finland, Finnish Defence Minister Antti Hakkanen said on Thursday, despite U.S. plans to scale back its operations elsewhere on NATO’s eastern flank in Europe.

Finland, which joined NATO in 2023 in response to Russia’s 2022 invasion of its other neighbour Ukraine, has a bilateral Defence Cooperation Agreement with the U.S., granting the U.S. military unimpeded access to 15 facilities and areas in Finland.

“We are very pleased that the U.S. is prepared to deepen their cooperation with us,” Hakkanen told Reuters onboard the U.S. Navy’s missile destroyer, USS Bainbridge, which was docked in Helsinki ahead of a joint NATO exercise in the Baltic Sea next week.

Hakkanen’s comments follo

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