Finland announced today that it held its first military exercises since joining NATO on April 4, during which two German and one Portuguese warships were symbolically docked in the port of Helsinki.

The two German frigates, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Bartolomeu Dias, will remain in the Finnish capital until Sunday, the Finnish Navy announced.

Before docking in Helsinki, the NATO ships took part in an exercise organized by the Finnish Coastal Fleet in the Gulf of Finland near Russia.

“This is the first time that Finland and the Coastal Fleet have conducted an exercise and visit since Finland joined NATO,” the Navy said in a statement.

Ending decades of neutrality and a non-aligned military stance, Finland, which shares a long common border with Russia, formally joined the Atlantic alliance on April 4 to become its 31st member.

Finland and Sweden announced their candidacy for NATO membership last May in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Moscow’s demand to freeze any eastward expansion of the Alliance.

Finland’s entry into NATO adds a 1,340 kilometer border line between the Alliance and Russia.

Finland, which even after the end of the Cold War maintained large military reserves of several hundreds of thousands of conscript citizens, makes a valuable military contribution to NATO.

In recent years, joint training of Finnish and NATO soldiers has been common within the framework of the Alliance’s Partnership for Peace, of which Finland is a member.

Sweden remains a candidate for NATO membership, as its admission has not yet been ratified by Turkey and Hungary.