Finland to roll back decades of military non-alignment — what's to come? | DW News

[Music] this is dw news live from berlin finland's prime minister and the president announced their support for nato membership it's the first step in a move that would end decades of military non-alignment popular opinion in the country has swung in favor of joining the western alliance since russia's invasion of ukraine also on the programme kiev offers a prisoner swap to get seriously wounded to fighters out of the embattled steel plant in mariopol offering to hand over russian prisoners of war in exchange and north korea confirms an outbreak of kobit 19 for the first time a national lockdown is ordered after the fast-spreading omicron variance is reported in the capital pyongyang [Music] i'm phil gale welcome to the program finland's president and prime minister have called for the country to apply for nato membership as soon as possible in a joint statement salo ninisto and santa marin said nato membership would strengthen finland's security as a member of nato finland would strengthen the entire defense alliance finland must apply for nato membership without delay now this is the first step in a process that could see the country roll back decades of military non-alignment the announcement is expected to put pressure on sweden which is also considering applying to join the defense alliance finland shares a 1300 kilometer border with russia the mood in the country has changed dramatically since moscow's invasion of ukraine [Music] war games to secure the peace more than 3 000 finnish troops and 700 vehicles took part in the arrow 22 military exercises in western finland the exercises were conducted with nato as planned last autumn armed forces from five countries are taking part in these military exercises the host finland is not a nato member yet but that could change soon for the first time in their history the majority of finns want to join nato a turning point in history keenly felt by people in la penrata on the border with russia for decades they have benefited from living in peace with their neighbors welcoming a steady stream of russian tourists from nearby saint petersburg says social worker linda brandt i never saw russia as a threat but now i'm constantly thinking about our common border it's over a thousand kilometers this nearby border crossing is seeing little traffic from either side at the moment this is partly due to coronavirus-related restrictions but it's also a direct consequence of russia's invasion of ukraine the war has dramatically changed the finn's attitude towards joining nato in just a few weeks at first i thought we shouldn't get involved in military alliances but now i think we should have made the decision a long time ago my eyes have been opened and i no longer see nato as some kind of war association but as a defense alliance defense through deterrence has been the principle behind nato's reinforcement of its eastern flank in recent months the idea being a strong defense will not be attacked nato says it will benefit from the finnish army's military capabilities i think we are ready ready to to enter the nato if the system will be made we have been training together with a good partners which are basically nato partners you know exercises for for four years so that shouldn't be a problem at the moment finland is a nato partner but not a member of the bloc nevertheless finnish forces have worked closely with nato for decades and that the war in ukraine will end soon and that europe will live in peace and stability linda brandt believes joining nato would help people in the small border town of lampenrata feel safer she says that now a peaceful and stable finland is only possible as a nato member have a look at these movements then with alexander stubb who was finished prime minister between 2014 and 2015. welcome to dw uh there are lots of people who say that today's announcement from the president and prime minister is long overdue what's your feeling well certainly i've been an advocate of finnish nato membership for the better part of 30 years probably one could say that better late than never and i must say that this will go down in history as nato's ninth enlargement which is pretty much putin's enlargement without his attack on ukraine i don't think the finnish public opinion would have changed as radically as it has so what message do you think this sends to vladimir putin well i think the president of finland sauli nina said it quite well yesterday you know all you need to do is in kremlin is look in the mirror it sends a message that when finns and swedes feel unsafe they seek for security elsewhere now the good news of course is that we're more nato compatible than most nato states um we have reserves of 900 000 we have mobility of 280 000 we have 62 f-18s and soon 64 f-35 so we're very much a security asset for the alliance it's a win-win for nordic security baltic sea security european security and the alliance it's interesting though that russia annexed crimea in 2014 while you were prime minister so what why do you think it is it has taken uh putin launching an all-out war on ukraine for finland to send this message to russia finally we should probably go a little bit further i was foreign minister in 2008 and chairman of the osce uh and together with french foreign minister bernard kuchner we brokered a ceasefire in georgia in five days uh that was the first warning signal after that in a speech called zero eight zero eight zero eight i called for a reassessment of finnish nato membership but i got a very strong pushback 2014 i don't think europe and the west reacted strongly enough but when you go into full scale conventional warfare when you kill innocent human beings women and children that's when people react and that's where i think putin made a tactical and strategic mistake which he's now paying for all right and let's look at the the russian uh reaction to this news because we've heard from the russian foreign ministry saying that finland joining nato is a radical change in the country's foreign policy they go on to say russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps both of a military technical and other nature in order to stop threats to its national security what's your reaction to that normal russian rhetoric remember finns are cool calm and collected we don't get flustered by much so we'll see a lot of cyber attacks and probably information wars in the next few days information was the type of stuff that you just had there but we'll get that in finland in sweden and then also and this is a warning to all of our future nato partners there'll be a lot of disinformation about finland joining nato but we are not excessively worried nothing is going to happen on the eastern flank because of finland joining nato this is an interesting mindset that the the closer you are to potential danger the more you sort of get used to it because as well as what the kremlin has said today we've heard the the the moscow repeatedly warning that it might deploy nuclear weapons if finland and sweden were to join uh nato so you see this as just more russian saber rattling no it's actually fake news i mean we need to remind the president former president medvedev that the nuclear missiles are already there in kaliningrad around the baltic sea region but this is the way in which russia is trying to intimidate finland and sweden out of the decision of joining nato of course the reverse will happen so the more there are threats the more popularity for nato membership increases remember when this war started we were down to about 20 of the population in favor of nato membership with russian action and threats we are now up to 76 and now with the prime minister president coming out today we're going to be north of 80 in favor of nato membership juxtaposed that with our eu referendum 1994 57 in favor 43 not so don't mess with finnish security i guess is what the finnish public is trying to tell russia okay and and it's as as neighbors this is such a really interesting and complex history you have a 1300 kilometer uh border um the relationship has has been fractious but you have stayed out of the western military alliances until now so where do you see the relationship going from here well i think for the foreseeable future so we're talking few years ahead we will see an isolated russia and more or less 40 european democracies on the other side of the fence but of course as you said we have 1 340 kilometers border with russia our security policy is always based on a careful assessment of two things idealism and realism idealism in the sense that bon affida we want to cooperate with russia and make them part of the west but realism we upkeep one of the largest militaries uh in uh europe that's the reality on the ground you know we've always reacted to situations in 1809 we maximized autonomy in 1917 we declared independence in 1944 we reluctantly accepted peace and lost 10 of our country in 1992 we applied for eu membership and now in 2022 we apply for nato membership and the only reason for this is who this put this aggression so that's the headline the headline is that it looks like the country is in favor of of uh applying to join nato do you anticipate any significant objections domestically or indeed amongst nato members double answer no and no domestically this is a foregone conclusion listen all parties are now basically in favor parliament is going to vote in favor i guess about 180 out of 200 uh mps next wednesday so that that is clear on the 30 nato member states we accept a fairly rapid ratification probably the quickest in the history of nato membership and the reason for that is that finland and sweden are as compatible to nato as can be and i think all the countries in nato see us as a security asset rather than a cost and in that sense we will it's a win-win for us for the baltic sea region and for the alliance so no problems on that front either that's very clear good talking to you thank you so much for joining us alexander stubb a former prime minister of finland you

Channel: DW News

Views: 426,509

Keywords: Finland, NATO, Kremlin, Putin, War in Ukraine, Finland Ukraine, Nato membership, active neutrality, military, military non-alignment

Id: 8CBzNGCzhhI

Length: 12min 24sec (744 seconds)

Published: Thu May 12 2022