A soldier arranges antipersonnel mines during training in Surin province, Thailand, July 27, 2022. Finland voted June 19, 2025, to withdraw from an international antipersonnel land mine ban, making it the latest NATO member to exit the agreement following Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. (Moises Rodriguez/U.S. Marine Corps)
Finland this week became the latest country to withdraw from an international agreement that bans the use of antipersonnel mines, joining several fellow NATO allies in a move aimed at deterring Russian aggression.
Finland’s parliament voted on Thursday to officially quit the 1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which has been ratified by more than 150 countries.
The decision puts Finland in the company of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, all of which have either withdrawn or are in the process of pulling out of the pact, commonly known as the Ottawa Convention.
Ahead of the vote, Defense Minister Antti Hakkanen spoke in favor of the effort, saying the Nordic country, which shares an 800-mile-long border with Russia, has “a duty to take measures that reduce Finland’s risk of being attacked.”
“Protection against the Russian threat takes priority,” Hakkanen said in a statement Tuesday.
Other countries that have moved to exit the convention have made a similar case, arguing that the potential threat posed by Russia necessitates such a move.
The 1997 convention prohibits the production and stockpiling of antipersonnel mines. Backers of the ban say such mines are indiscriminate and kill or injure thousands of civilians each year, long after the wars they were used in have ended.
Under the convention’s rules, Finland will be allowed to start producing and stockpiling land mines six months after Helsinki formally notifies the United Nations of its withdrawal.
While much of western Europe is a signatory to the accord, the United States has not ratified the pact. Although the U.S. doesn’t manufacture or normally use antipersonnel mines, successive administrations have argued that they are necessary to defend South Korea.
Finland is one of NATO’s newest members. It joined in 2023 after decades of neutrality, a reversal that was prompted by the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine a year earlier.
Defense chiefs from countries on the alliance’s eastern flank have said mines are needed as an option for defending their territory from a potential Russian attack.
“With this decision, we are sending a clear message: Our countries are prepared and can use every necessary measure to defend our territory and freedom,” defense chiefs from Poland and all three Baltic states said in a March statement.
