HELSINKI – Experts from across the NATO alliance gathered in Helsinki on Tuesday to kick off a two-day seminar focused on protecting critical food and water supplies from hybrid threats.
Finland is hosting the annual meeting of NATO’s Food and Agriculture Planning Group (FAPG), bringing together more than 50 international specialists and over 20 Finnish participants to develop strategies for strengthening the resilience of the vital sector. The meeting, which runs Oct. 7-8, was announced in a press statement released Tuesday morning by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
The seminar is a joint effort between the NATO Secretariat, the Finnish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and the National Emergency Supply Agency. It aims to deepen international cooperation in safeguarding essential infrastructure against a range of modern threats.
“The seminar in Helsinki highlights Finland’s active role in NATO’s resilience work and offers an important forum for developing the protection of critical infrastructure and the countering of hybrid threats,” said Pekka Pesonen, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, in the statement.
Resilience and civil preparedness are a cornerstone of the alliance’s collective defense, a principle rooted in Article 3 of the North Atlantic Treaty. NATO’s Resilience Committee and its six specialized planning groups work to support member states in preparing for everything from natural disasters to armed attacks. The FAPG is specifically tasked with addressing resilience in the food and water sectors.
Janne Känkänen, CEO of the National Emergency Supply Agency, emphasized the practical benefits of the collaboration.
“Promoting civil preparedness is one of the core duties of the National Emergency Supply Agency,” Känkänen said. “The concrete cooperation within NATO’s Food and Agriculture Planning Group also help us to develop resilience and security of supply in Finland.”
Pesonen added that the event is “an opportunity for Finland to present its own preparedness and security of supply in agriculture and the food and water sectors together with the private sector, the public sector and other operators.”
