Finland is in daily discussions with Norway and Denmark about the possibility of launching an evacuation operation to repatriate its citizens from Lebanon, according to the Finnish Foreign Ministry's consular chief.
A handful of EU countries have already started flights evacuating their citizens from Lebanon.
With the escalation of conflict in the region, Sweden announced already in August that it would temporarily close its embassy.
According to Jussi Tanner, the Finnish Foreign Ministry's consular chief, other Nordic countries have so far not launched national evacuation operations. However, he added that Finland is in daily discussions with Norway and Denmark, in particular, about the possibility of launching a larger Nordic operation to repatriate citizens.
"The most important thing is to keep all options on the table and prepare for different scenarios, because we don't know what the situation will be like in 24 hours," Tanner told Yle.
Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP) said on Wednesday that Finland's readiness to evacuate around 100 civilians is high following Israel's ground invasion of Lebanon.
There are still an estimated 100 civilian Finnish nationals in the country.
According to Tanner, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs contacted all of the Finnish citizens known to be in the country on Friday.
"Today [Thursday] we will call through the whole list again. It is inevitable that not everyone will be reached, but at least we will get a fairly comprehensive picture of how many need some kind of help," he said.
Not yet time for evacuation
However, a full-scale evacuation is still a long way off, according to Tanner.
"Of course, we also have plans for how Finland's own military, or other national capabilities, could be used. But we are still a long way from that," he stated.
First of all, there are not enough Finns in Lebanon to evacuate to make it worthwhile for Finland to launch such an operation on its own.
Secondly, mounting this kind of operation would require an even more radical change in the situation in Lebanon.
At present, it is still possible to leave Beirut on commercial flights. Exit by sea is also possible, either to Cyprus or from Tripoli in northern Lebanon to Turkey.
The only airline currently operating regular services to Lebanon is the Lebanese flag carrier, Middle East Airlines.
"However, buying a ticket has become quite difficult in the last 48 hours. We have good contacts with the airline's management and are able to assist Finns on these flights if and when the need arises," said Tanner.
If Lebanese airspace were to be closed for a longer period, it would also mean the end of civil aviation and the closure of the international airport.
Even this would not necessarily mean that Finnish citizens would be evacuated, for example by Finnish Defence Forces aircraft.
Lessons from Afghanistan
In 2021, Finland evacuated 414 people from Afghanistan over a period of about two weeks after the Taliban took over Kabul.
The evacuees were mainly employees of the Finnish embassy, along with about 50 Afghans who had been working for the Finnish government.
According to the ministry's consular chief, the evacuation operation in Afghanistan cannot even be compared to the situation in Lebanon.
Even so, much was learned from that experience, including the importance of cooperation among national authorities.
"Based on the Afghan experience, cooperation between the foreign affairs and defence administrations, as well as the armed forces, has taken two or three big steps forward. We now have good routines and confidence in each other and in our ability to deal with these issues together," Tanner told Yle.