Finland, Sweden deletes Moscow’s warning to join NATO
HELSINKI (AP) – Finland and Sweden have wiped out warnings from neighboring Russia that their possible accession to NATO would trigger “serious military policy consequences” from Moscow for the two countries.
A statement from Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday expressed concern over what it described as an attempt by the United States and some of its allies to “pull” Finland and Sweden into NATO, and warned that Moscow would be forced to retaliate if it joined the alliance. . .
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Saturday that “we have heard this before.”
“We do not think it requires a military threat,” Haavisto said in an interview with Finnish public service company YLE. – If Finland were NATO’s external border, it would rather mean that Russia would certainly take this into account in its own defense planning. I see nothing new as such “in the statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Haavisto said.
Finland has a land border of 1,340 kilometers (830 km) with Russia – the longest border shared by all EU Member States and Russia.
Haavisto’s words were repeated by Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, who said on Friday that he did not see the statement that Moscow threatened Finland militarily, but rather what kind of “counter-step” Russia would take if Finland joined NATO.
Niinisto told Finnish media that he did not see that Zakharova’s statement differed from what she and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had said earlier about Finland’s possible membership of NATO. He also noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the issue with a similar tone as early as 2016 during his visit to Finland.
In Sweden, Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson took up Moscow’s statement at a joint press conference on Friday with Sweden’s military commander Micael Byden.
“I want to be extremely clear. It is Sweden that itself and independently decides on our security policy line,” says Andersson.
Russia’s statement came as Moscow’s relations with the West fell to their lowest level since the Cold War over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“It is clear that if Finland and Sweden join NATO, which is first and foremost a military organization, it will have serious military policy consequences, which would require retaliation from the Russian Federation,” Zakharova said in a news briefing on Friday.
Zakharova argued that, although each state has a sovereign right to choose the way to guarantee its security, all members of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe reaffirmed their commitment to the principle that the security of one state should not be achieved at the expense of another. security.
“We see Finland’s course in maintaining military freedom of alliance policy as an important factor contributing to stability and security in Northern Europe and on the European continent as a whole,” Zakharova said, adding that “we can not fail to see consistent efforts by NATO. and some of its members, mainly the United States, to involve both Finland and Sweden in the alliance. ” She noted an increase in NATO exercises in their territories.
Even though they are not members, Finland and Sweden work closely with NATO, which means that, among other things, the Alliance’s troops can practice on their soil. Helsinki and Stockholm have also greatly intensified their bilateral defense cooperation in recent years and ensured close military cooperation with the United States, the United Kingdom and neighboring NATO member Norway.
——
Vladimir Isachenkov from Moscow contributed to this report.
___
Follow the AP’s coverage of the Ukraine crisis at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine