Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Wednesday that her country will seek to reach a consensus “as broad as possible” in the coming months on an eventual entry into NATO, despite Sweden’s reluctance to do the same.
Marin explained at a press conference that his government is preparing a report on the different options regarding the foreign and security policy of Finland, a country that, like Sweden, is associated with NATO, but is not a member.
The objective, said Marin, is to present this report “within a few weeks” in the Eduskunta (Finnish Parliament), where the different political parties will hold an “exhaustive debate” throughout this spring.
“We are in a phase where we are trying to reach a national consensus in this changing security policy environment, including issues that have to do with applying for NATO membership,” Marin said.
His Swedish counterpart, Magdalena Andersson, refused to start a similar debate in the Stockholm Parliament on Tuesday, arguing that if Sweden submitted an application to join the Alliance “it would contribute to destabilizing the situation” and increase tensions with Russia.
However, Marin pointed out that Finland is not going to ignore this issue, because among the population there is concern and fear that Russia, a country with which it shares a long border, has invaded another neighboring country (Ukraine).
“We will make a broad assessment of both the implications of applying for NATO membership and those of not doing so. We must bear in mind that not applying for membership is also a choice and also has its consequences,” he said.
In this sense, he announced that his government is willing to increase the defense budget “by hundreds of millions of euros” to improve the military capacity of the Nordic country.
Regarding the imposition of new sanctions by the European Union (EU) in response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a measure approved this Wednesday by the Twenty-seven, Marin assured that Finland supports extending the disconnection of the transfer system to all Russian banks financial SWIFT.
Instead, he was against the EU launching a new instrument to issue joint debt to finance defense and energy spending due to the Ukraine crisis. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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