Columns The President faced the end of a decade

Sauli Niinistö will soon be in the most difficult place during his ten-year presidency.

“Here is the deputy judge’s travel reading, ”the presidential candidate Sauli Niinistö said in an almost empty train car and presented a textbook on international law. “This is interesting,” he added.

It was Monday, January 30, 2012, the last week of the election campaign. As a journalist, I followed Niinistö and the closing letters of the campaign up close. The train was on its way to Jyväskylä and Niinistö to win the election. It is now ten years since that victory.

When he became president, Niinistö certainly had a lot of international experience, but foreign and security policy was not his specialty. He had not served as prime minister or foreign minister.

Over the decade, Niinistö has accumulated a wealth of experience in international politics and international law, both in theory and in practice. Right now, his national and international influence is at its peak.

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Key Of course, Niinistö has a relationship with Russia and the president Vladimir Putin.

In the Monthly Supplement, published today Sami Sillanpää says, how Niinistö has built and nurtured this relationship with extraordinary care since the very first days of the presidency and even when Russia has been at its most difficult. In the monthly supplement also the editor Unto Hämäläinen times The history of Finland’s 27-year NATO option.

Dialogue with Russia, the NATO option and NATO only through a referendum – that’s what Niinistö’s doctrine is summarized in. The Finnish line has been completely different from, for example, the Baltic countries belonging to NATO. They do not believe in dialogue with Russia.

Sauli Niinistö is now in the most difficult place of his presidency, fortunately ten years more experienced. Despite a well-functioning dialogue, Putin has once again shown his hardness, cunning and willingness to confuse. Finland’s security environment has changed.

During his last two years as president, Niinistö will have to decide whether Finland will continue on its current path or whether it should apply for NATO membership anyway. The decision is one of the most difficult in Finnish political history. There is no obvious right solution, as many claim.

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One opinion would be easier to change right now. Niinistö made a statement about the need for a referendum even before he became president and has consistently adhered to it, even though the world has changed.

A referendum on NATO would almost inevitably mean a fierce information war on Finnish soil.

The author is the forerunner of the featured editorial.

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