00:00We're here in Rovi Yarvi, a training and artillery range area in Lapland. The troops behind me
00:05are training in anti-tank warfare. Just behind me is a camouflaged anti-tank firing position. You can
00:13see the soldier just there next to the weapon waiting for a live fire signal. They're essentially
00:19training as to what to do in the event of a tank invasion. So they're using advanced anti-tank
00:25weaponry to track moving targets in the valley just below this ridge. The Finnish army is preparing
00:32itself to defend the country in the event of an attack by Russia. Finland did of course face
00:37invasion from the Soviet Union in 1940, but now with international tensions high again,
00:44and particularly since the Russian renewed invasion of Ukraine, Finland is on high alert.
00:50It has joined NATO, abandoning decades of neutrality, designed to placate its eastern
00:57neighbour. And now I'm in amongst these trees watching young soldiers train for anti-tank
01:04warfare in the event that the unthinkable happens. But the soldier's presence here now goes beyond
01:10protecting Finland in the event of invasion. Finland is now NATO's arctic bulwark and also
01:15an example to European allies contemplating a dangerous new world in which US President Donald
01:21Trump makes no secret of his disdain for NATO. If you try to think about what this would be like
01:27in a war, try to think of it more like a kind of a snow-covered Vietnam. I actually managed
01:33to see
01:33reindeer on the way up here. It's about an hour and a half drive into the interior. I imagine that
01:38reindeer seized a lot of tanks and armored personnel carriers because they were not phased at all by
01:43the sight of us. The Finnish way of war would be to deny the Russians entry to their country and
01:50make
01:50them pay in the event of an invasion. This is the international border crossing between Finland and
01:56Russia near the town of Sala. I can see Russia from here. This border crossing opened in 2002,
02:03but it's been closed now for two years due to the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and also
02:12activity by the Russians essentially forcing migrants across the border here. In a part of the world with
02:19trackless forests and frigid temperatures, Finland also brings enviable skills. As climate change opens up
02:26natural resources and shipping routes in the Arctic, so has competition for them. And it's a competition that
02:31both the US and Russia want to win, and Finland complicates that for Moscow. That behind me is a 120
02:38millimetre
02:41mortar and they're about to conduct a live fire exercise.
02:47I joined photographer Louis Pellou in Lapland for another installment of our Magnetic North series on the
02:53changing Arctic. You can read my full feature on bloomberg.com slash opinion.
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