11m ago 09:35
Finland's Europe minister: 'highly likely' Finland will join Nato, application process should be 'quick as possible'
Tytti Tuppurainen is Finland’s minister for European affairs, and she has been interviewed on Sky News in the UK about Finland’s prospect for joining Nato. Speaking from Helsinki, she said there was now a profound change in the relations between Russia and Finland, which saddens her. She told viewers:
The people of Finland seem to have already made up their mind and there is a huge majority for Nato membership of Finland.
Of courses, that’s not all. We are a parliamentary democracy so we need to discuss this issue in our parliament. At this point I would say it is highly likely, but a decision is not yet made.
She described Russia’s actions as a “brutal” war in Ukraine and “a wake-up call to us all”. With regard to the hostile rhetoric coming out of Russia at the prospect of Finland and possibly Sweden joining Nato, she said:
Every country has the right to do its own security arrangements. So we have to be very, very careful in order not to limit our own room of manoeuvre because of outside factors. So, whatever Russia is saying, we of course are hearing that, but we are doing our own decisions based on our interests, and on our conditions, our consideration of the overall situation.
Questioned on how quickly Finland could achieve Nato membership, she said “the interim period between the membership application and becoming an actual member can become really nasty. So I think it’s in the best interest of us all that the application process is as quick as possible.”
On the prospect of future Russian expansion westwards, she said:
We’ve seen what Russia is able to do, what Vladimir Putin is able to do. He’s a ruthless dictator, and he wants to peal back the years of the former Soviet Russia, and we cannot allow that to happen. So we have to do what we need to do, as Western countries, as defenders of liberal values and liberal democracy, and we have to act united, and we have to isolate Russia.