The Defense Department on Monday opened an Office of Defense Cooperation (ODC), which is a separate DoD office in Helsinki, Finland.

The ODC operates under the authority of U.S. Ambassador Barbara Barrett and is located at the Finnish Ministry of Defence.

The United States has similar offices in 34 European countries including Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

The creation of ODC-Finland is part of defense equipment cooperation between the Finnish Ministry of Defence and DoD based on the 1991 Finnish-U.S. memorandum of understanding on the principles of reciprocity in defense procurements and on the Declaration of Principles that was signed in 2007.

The ODC promotes and administers Finnish-U.S. defense industry cooperation. It coordinates and supports Finnish-U.S. defense sales, such as acquisitions related to the upgrading of the F-18 Hornet fighters produced by Boeing [BA]. In addition, the ODC provides assistance to export projects of U.S. and Finnish defense industry companies.