Finland is confident that its accession to NATO will take place, although it recognizes that the process may last “several months” and trusts that its border with Russia “will remain peaceful,” its Foreign Minister, Pekka Haavisto, declared on Saturday in Berlin.
“We will deal with this issue on Monday and it is very likely that there will be a strong majority in our Parliament in support of NATO membership and we will be able to apply over the next week,” the minister said upon arrival at an informal meeting of foreign ministers. Foreign of the Atlantic Alliance.
“I hope that this process will be successful in the end and of course we know that it will take several months for parliaments and policy makers to come to conclusions,” Haavisto said ahead of the NATO meeting that will address the war situation in Ukraine and future wars. accessions of Finland and Sweden.
Both countries have communicated their willingness to start the NATO membership application process and, on the Finnish side, its president, Sauli Niinistö, communicated this intention by telephone to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on Saturday.
Niinistö explained to Putin that the Russian demands to prevent NATO expansion at the end of 2021 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 have fundamentally altered Finland’s security environment, according to the Efe news agency.
Minister Haavisto stated in this regard that Niinistö “called President Putin for the reason that he wanted to inform Russia that Finland is going ahead with the accession process and that this is the current status and I understand that Russia took note of this announcement”.
“We have a 1,300-kilometer border with Russia, the border is peaceful and we want it to remain peaceful and it is important that we communicate with our neighbor, we do not ask for permission for our political decisions, we only communicate it,” Haavisto added to the press.
The Finnish minister alluded to the opposition expressed by Turkey to the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO and explained that he is in permanent contact with the Turkish foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, and that he spoke with him on Friday “to reduce tensions a little And I’m sure we’ll find a solution.”
“It is clear that all NATO countries have the capacity to block the process and that is why it is important that we at least have good contacts with everyone,” Haavisto added.
“There may be internal concerns or other concerns that we cannot influence. And this is something that we have also said in Parliament: we have a process of 30 countries that have to go with our candidacy before their Parliaments,” added the Finnish minister. .
This Saturday the Social Democratic Party of Finland (SDP) led by the Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, approved by a resounding majority to give its support to the entry of the Nordic country into NATO, during an extraordinary meeting held in Helsinki.
The SDP supported accession to the Atlantic Alliance by 53 votes in favour, 5 against and 2 blank, an outcome that was foreseeable after both Marin and the Finnish president, Niinistö, expressed on Thursday their wish that Finland present ” promptly” your entry request.
The meeting in Berlin, which begins tonight in the German capital with a working dinner, is planned to be attended by all the ministers of the 30 NATO member countries, who will conclude their meeting on Sunday with a press conference by the Secretary General of the alliance, Jens Stoltenberg.
5
