The president of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, and the Finnish Government announced on Sunday, May 15, the country's desire to apply for admission to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, which will probably be accepted by Parliament.
Finland is very close to joining NATO. This announcement comes despite pressure from the Kremlin, which states that abandoning the position of neutrality that the country has maintained for decades would be "a mistake."
However, the manifestations of the authorities were emphatic in ratifying that the invasion of its neighbor Russia to Ukraine is the main fundamental reason for this geopolitical change that the leaders highlighted as "historic".
At a press conference, President Sauli Niinistö, a member of the National Coalition (liberals), and the Prime Minister, the Social Democrat, Sanna Marin, affirmed that, with this decision, their country today begins a path towards "a new era".
They made it clear, however, that the initiative must now be ratified by Parliament, which they urged to debate in a "determined and responsible" manner. All parliamentary representations gave their permission to move forward with joining NATO, with the exception of the Left Alliance, which has not issued a statement so far.
"A new era is opening: a protected Finland is born as part of a stable, strong and responsible Nordic region," said President Niinistö.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO will not result in retaliatory measures by Moscow if it does not include an expansion of the bloc's military infrastructure in its territories.
"As for the expansion […] of the alliance to Finland and Sweden, Russia […] has no problems with these states. And therefore, in this sense, an expansion to these countries does not create direct threats for us" Putin assured during a summit with the leaders of the member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO).
"But an expansion of the military infrastructure in those territories would certainly provoke a response from us. And we will see what it would be based on the threats that are created for us," the president added.
Likewise, the Russian president accused NATO of trying to exert its influence in more and more regions of the world.
"The Euro-Atlantic Alliance goes beyond its geographical purpose, the Euro-Atlantic [region], it is trying to become more and more actively involved in international affairs, to control international security situations, and to influence them - and not in the best way - in other regions. of the world. This certainly requires additional attention on our part," Putin said.
CSTO Summit
The summit held this Monday in Moscow is dedicated to the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Collective Security Treaty (May 15, 1992) and the 20th anniversary of the creation of the Organization (October 7, 2002).
The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, took part in the meeting; the Prime Minister of Armenia, Nikol Pashinian; the president of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko; the president of Kazakhstan, Kasim-Yomart Tokáev; the president of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Zhaparov; the President of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, and the Secretary General of the CSTO, Stanislav Zas.
At the summit, the leaders agreed on a joint statement expressing concern about the situation in Afghanistan and other territories bordering the organization, as well as calling for reducing tensions in Eurasia and normalizing relations with NATO. They also criticized the selective use of international law and the practice of disregarding it during interventions in conflicts.
Opinion
Russia is not following the game of NATO and the US, it seems that it will wait for the actions of these countries, in Ukraine there was a precedent that the media did not tell about but in the Donbass the Ukrainian army was in conflict with the self-proclaimed republics, of this internal conflict derived from not accepting the requests kyiv of these regions by not letting them speak the Russian language caused commotion and as a result of this conflict according to UN data there were up to 14000 deaths, this was the reason why Russia agreed to support the separatists, (whether they were supported by the Kremlin before or not, we don't know, what we do know is that many people were dying and this was the main reason for the conflict). When the president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, says he has no problems with these countries, this is what he is referring to, is his actions justifiable or not, making an analysis of the number of deaths from coronavirus in the US, it is almost reaching a million people, people killed by the Russian conflict in Ukraine is 3,668 according to official figures (https://ukraine.un.org/en/181995-ukraine-civilian-casualties-15-may-2022) by coronavirus was 112,459 and the US never He gave the resources in money for the health of the citizens of Ukraine as he is giving to arm, if only they had reached a diplomatic agreement it would be so easy to avoid this whole conflict. However, the coronavirus has killed more people, but it seems that the arms business is much more profitable.
