Finland to lift full ban on hosting nuclear arms, government says

Finland plans to lift a long-standing ban on having nuclear arms on its territory, the government said on Thursday, aligning with Nordic neighbours in a move that could open the door to deploying atomic bombs on Finnish soil ​during times of war.



Finland's Nuclear Energy Act, passed in 1987, prohibits the import, manufacture, possession and detonation of nuclear explosives on its soil, seen by some Finns as a clause that would benefit only Russia if there ever was a war.



While Finland maintained neutrality during the Cold War era, the country in 2023 joined the NATO military alliance in response to nuclear-armed Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine the preceding year.