The president of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, on Sunday described Russia’s President Vladimir Putin as “calm” over news that neighbor Finland would join NATO.
In an interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Niinistö said it was actions by Putin, including the war in Ukraine, that helped Finland change its stance toward NATO membership.
“When I called him, I wanted just to confirm that now the situation has changed,” Niinistö said. “We are going to apply for membership. And in the same way he confirmed that he thinks it's a mistake. ‘We are not threatening you.’ All together the discussion was very, what I would say, calm and cool.”
“And he didn't repeat those threats he had earlier and his people had been telling, that is, if Finland joins, that means some kind of contra steps, military contra steps, whatever that meant,” Niinistö added. “But he didn't repeat it now, so I was not necessarily surprised but it was, like I said, quite calm and cool.”
According to Niinistö, when talking to Russia, “you have to keep in mind that what he said doesn't mean that you shouldn't be all the time quite well aware and follow up what really is happening. But so far, it seems that there's no immediate problems coming.”
Niinistö said there were some issues that helped Finland change its stance on NATO membership.
“First, Russia tried to deny any enlargement of NATO,” he said. “And that changed, in a way, very much our position here. So far we had thought that, ‘okay, we are nonaligned of our own will.’ But when they said that, that meant that we do not have any will left.
“That was the first stage, 24th of February, when they made a huge attack to Ukraine. That's changed quite a lot,” he continued. “ Well, it showed that they are ready to attack an independent neighboring country.”
Other things were also changing, he added.
“What we see now, Europe, the world, is more divided,” Niinistö said. “There's not very much room for nonaligned in between. So, that was also what we were thinking. I do not believe that they planned… any attack on Finland. Not then nor now.”
Niinistö also said Turkey appears to be against Finland joining NATO, but that “it’s not in our hands.”
“I had a telephone discussion with President [Recep Tayyip] Erdogan about a month ago,” he recounted. “And then he said that they will estimate, well, positively our aim to apply membership, and now it changed. I believe that there will be a lot of discussion still. And I'm not that worried about that.”
“It's not in our hands,” he asserted. “[Ukraine] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy was very positive with our membership. Maybe he sees that it's good that NATO shows that it is possible to enlarge and maybe waiting for the future for them to try to do the same. At the moment, we hear that it is not a solution.”
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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