The President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, who is in favor of maintaining the present non-aligned policy, noted that the issue on the country entering NATO should be put to a national referendum.

Commenting on the report of the international expert group about the consequences of NATO entry for the country, published on Friday, he stated in an interview with Yle that Russia sees NATO as a threat, which was also outlined in the report.

“They don’t want this threat to reach their borders,” the President noted. We should hear the opinion of the people and hold a referendum, Sauli Niinistö believes. The decision on joining NATO will have the same importance as the decision to join the European Union – that decision was put to a referendum vote,” the President of Finland stated. Niinistö also stated that he doesn’t support the country’s membership in NATO.

“My point of view is that there is no need to change the current policy,” Sauli Niinistö said. He also rejected the experts’ conclusions that Finland and Sweden have to make a joint decision on joining the Alliance. “We don’t have automatic interrelations concerning this issue: if one country decides to join NATO the second has to immediately do the same,” the President of Finland said.

According to him, the process is very challenging and each country, of course, is responsible for its own decision-making process concerning NATO. However, it doesn’t alter the fact that the opinion of one country can affect the opinion of the other.

  Finland, NATO

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