King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain will be in Finland from 5 to 7 October. It's their first state visit of this kind since taking the throne; the last time Spanish monarchs were there officially was 1989, when Juan Carlos and Sofia made the trip. For thirty-seven years Spanish monarchs haven't made a state visit to Finland - and this time the reason for the trip is more than obvious.

The picture for the media is already set: Helsinki, then Rovaniemi, a small town right on the Arctic Circle that markets itself as Santa Claus's official hometown. Snowy forests, the northern lights, Sami culture. But open the programme and the fairy tale fades. In Rovaniemi the king and Finnish President Alexander Stubb will visit the Lapland Air Wing of the Finnish Defence Forces and the base of the Jaeger Brigade, meet conscripts doing their compulsory military service and give speeches on European security at the University of Lapland. There will also be a seminar on the security of Europe's borders - "from the Arctic to the Mediterranean".

The Spanish Foreign Ministry doesn't even try to hide it. According to the official rationale, the visit is part of Spain's commitment to "strategic autonomy" and to Europe's security on all its borders, "with a 360-degree approach", including the Arctic and the Baltic. Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares is travelling with the royal couple. When a monarch travels to Santa's hometown to talk about defence, the message isn't meant for the children.

Protocol in Helsinki

The royal couple arrive on Monday, 5 October. The next day brings the official welcome in front of the Presidential Palace, open to the public, with a greeting from the balcony at 10am. Then meetings between the delegations, lunch with mayor Daniel Sazonov at City Hall, and the king's meeting with Speaker of Parliament Jussi Halla-aho and Prime Minister Petteri Orpo. The afternoon is set aside for a business event at Finlandia Hall, bringing together Finnish and Spanish companies developing artificial intelligence. At the same time Queen Letizia and First Lady Suzanne Innes-Stubb will visit a Finnish-Spanish bilingual school. In the evening - a gala dinner at the palace.

On 7 October there will be wreath-laying at the Heroes' Cross and at Marshal Mannerheim's grave in Hietaniemi cemetery, a tour of an exhibition on the architect Alvar Aalto, and the opening of an exhibition of contemporary Spanish architecture. All classic protocol. The real weight of the visit lies in the second half of the trip, in Lapland.

Why now

Finland joined NATO in 2023 after decades of military non-alignment and today has the longest land border with Russia of any EU member. Spain, meanwhile, sits at the opposite end of the continent, facing the Mediterranean and North Africa. That link, from one border to the other, is exactly what Madrid wants to show. Before packing for the north, the royal couple will host Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron in Madrid next week, also on a state visit.

There's one detail that will ring a bell in the Balkans. The last Finnish return state visit to Spain was made by President Martti Ahtisaari in 1999 - the same year he brokered the end of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, and he later signed off on the plan for Kosovo's status. Even then Finland knew security wasn't just a matter for its own border. The question is how much of this new north-south axis will be heard in our region too - or whether the Balkans will once again only come up when they become a problem.