MOSCOW, December 19. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned Finland’s ambassador Antti Helantera after Washington and Helsinki concluded a defense cooperation agreement.

Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova warned that Russia would take measures to counter aggressive decisions by Finland and NATO.

"On December 19, the Finnish ambassador to Moscow was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry to be told that the Russian side will not leave unnoticed NATO’s military build-up on our border, which threatens the security of Russia, and will take the necessary measures to counter aggressive decisions by Finland and its NATO allies. The responsibility for turning the zone of good-neighborliness in this region into a zone of likely confrontation lies entirely with the current Finnish authorities," the commentary reads.

Zakharova noted that the agreement regulated quantitative parameters, transportation and deployment of US military personnel, their use of military bases, and storage of weapons on Finnish territory.

"It is noteworthy that the provisions of the agreement do not contain any restrictions on their (armaments’ - TASS) types, including nuclear weapons, which will be used for its implementation, as well as actually place the US military contingent stationed in Finland outside the Finnish legal space," Zakharova pointed out.

Earlier, the press service of the Finnish government announced plans for signing a defense cooperation agreement with the United States on December 18. The Helsingin Sanomat daily also said that Finland will give the US military access to 15 bases on its territory under a future defense cooperation agreement. The provisions of the document mainly concern the status of NATO troops. A number of other member countries, including Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Latvia, have relevant bilateral agreements with the US. Denmark and Sweden are in talks with Washington on the matter.

Negotiations on signing the agreement lasted from August 2022 to October 2023. A number of Finnish experts are critical of the document. They argue that Finland is giving up part of its sovereignty, while there is no public discussion on this issue.