Finland has lifted its decades-long ban on nuclear weapons, marking a major shift in the NATO state’s foreign policy.

The country, which shares the longest border with Russia of any NATO member, passed the vote by 125-61 in parliament on Wednesday, clearing the way for Finland to facilitate the movement of nuclear weapons on its territory.

Finland banned nuclear weapons under its 1987 Nuclear Energy Act, prohibiting the import, manufacture, possession, and detonation of any such explosives on its soil.

“This historic reform strengthens the security of Finland and of NATO as a whole,” the country’s Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen wrote on X.

Finland officially joined NATO in April 2023, just over a year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Earlier this year,  Häkkänen argued that the country’s nuclear restrictions no longer reflected the geopolitical realities of a NATO member.

Finland shares an 833-mile border with Russia, and there have been several high-tension security incidents in recent years.

Just last week, Russia began construction on a new military base just miles from the border with Finland for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The base will have capacity for up to 6,000 military personnel, according to former Finnish intelligence.

In May, Finnish authorities deployed fighter jets after a suspected Russian drone entered the country’s airspace near the capital, Helsinki.

Military officials later revealed they had received advance intelligence warning of the incident.

And last year, Russia set up some 130 military installations capable of housing 2,000 troops in Kamenka, around 35 miles from the Finnish border.

Finland has constructed a 10-foot fence, topped with barbed wire, to cover a portion of its Russian border and prevent illegal crossings.

In the fall, Finland’s parliament will vote on French President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to integrate France’s nuclear capability into European security.

Known as “forward deterrence,” it would allow for the deployment of French nuclear jets to allied regional airfields, including Finland, as part of a shift away from strictly national defense toward a broader European role.

Many European nations are currently reviewing their defense policies amid the ongoing war in Ukraine and doubts about the long-term status of US security guarantees.

Some 100 tactical US nuclear weapons are currently hosted in six European NATO members: Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the UK.

President Trump has called on NATO allies to pull their weight in the alliance, although he has not said he will end US nuclear protection in Europe.

Every European NATO ally, as well as Canada, has increased their defense spending to at least 2% of GDP following 2025’s landmark pledge in The Hague.

That represented a 20% increase in combined defense spending in real terms, while Finland’s neighbor Norway became the first European ally to surpass the US in defense spending per capita.

NATO allies are now aiming toward a 5% GDP spending target on defense by 2035.