Policy|Security policy
“NATO membership would be useful for us, but we need to make sure that the path there is safe,” says Suomela. He is the second leader of the ruling party to state his position on the issue.
Military alliance Becoming a member of NATO is a sensible goal for Finland, says the Greens’ deputy chairman Iiris Suomela. However, he stresses that the right timing for applying for membership must be carefully considered.
“I see that NATO membership is the right direction for Finland. It would be useful for us to be a member, but we have to make sure that the path there is safe, ”Suomela tells HS.
He says he is now ready to state his own reserved yes position, as he has had time to discuss the issue within the party.
“Over the weekend, we met with the party delegation and the parliamentary group, and we had a party board meeting. All this discussion has, of course, influenced my decision to state my position. It would have been the wrong way to go if I had first started piling up my own position and only then had the opportunity to discuss it between our members and our activists. ”
The formation of the Greens as a party is still going on. Suomela says that some of the party’s activists are still opposed to Finland’s NATO membership and they must be able to express their views in the party’s internal debate.
Of the leaders of the governing parties, only the NCP has told NATO about its position in NATO Anna-Maja Henriksson. The position of Henriksson and the RKP is that Finland must apply for NATO membership. Sanna Marin (sd), Annika Saarikko (middle) and Li Andersson (left) have not yet stated their position.
Opposition parties the coalition is in favor of NATO membership.
Suomelan considers that considering the timing of a possible application for membership is very important, as Finland will by no means remain in the so-called limbo.
“The NATO door is open, but the key question is how open it is at any given moment. Our advantage is that the door is clearly open at all times. That is why it is good that both the key ministers and the President of the Republic are constantly working to strengthen Finland’s foreign relations. In recent weeks, for example, the United States, the United Kingdom and Turkey, many other NATO countries, have been met. ”
According to Suomela, the aim is to ensure that when Finland applies for NATO membership, the parliaments of all thirty member states would be ready to accept Finland as a member.
“It would be very dangerous to get into the same type of limbo where Ukraine and Georgia have been. These countries have been given the impression that the door to NATO is open, but have not been admitted. It has clearly been a dangerous situation for Ukraine and Georgia, and it would certainly be for Finland as well, ”Suomela estimates.
Read more: Would Finland’s path to NATO be a hotbed? One of the strongest countries in the military alliance may stand in the way of membership
Suomela believes that Finland would be better safe inside NATO than outside, as long as the application for membership is timed correctly and Finland is accepted as a member.
“Being the first to join NATO will prevent an attack. The threshold for attacking a NATO country is considerably higher than the threshold for attacking a non-NATO country. And then if Finland were attacked, we would have the support of other NATO countries. ”
Suomela recalls that NATO membership would also require a lot from Finland. For example, the Baltic countries have been active in NATO operations.
“And there’s probably a good reason for that. Yes, we have to give so that we can get help when we need it. Operations are never completely risk-free, they have killed people. Finland has so far participated in many of these operations, so in that sense the change would not necessarily be huge. But yes, that would be a change, and we need to talk about it openly now. ”
Also chairman of the Group of the Greens Atte Harjanne has expressed support for applying for NATO membership. Harjanne has been even more in favor of Suomela. He said at the turn of the year that Finland had to “redeem the NATO option without delay”.
Read more: Finland’s accession to NATO would be primarily a loss of prestige for Russia, says the expert – What would joining the military alliance change?
#Security #policy #Iiris #Suomela #leader #Greens #NATO #membership #direction #Finland
