This content was published on November 07, 2022 – 10:57 am November 07, 2022 – 10:57 am
Helsinki, 7th November (EFE) .- Finnish President Sauli Niinistö reiterated this Monday that his country has no intention of harboring nuclear weapons once its accession to NATO is complete, although the government has refused a veto to that effect in the Protocol on Access to the Alliance.
In a speech in Helsinki, Niinistö warned that the nuclear weapons debate had recently become very topical in Finland as a result of the war in Ukraine, which he sees as a “dangerous trend”.
“To be clear, even if we do not impose prior restrictions on our NATO membership, Finland has no intention of introducing nuclear weapons on its territory. Nor have I seen any indication that anyone is offering us nuclear weapons,” Niinistö said.
According to the Finnish president, who is jointly responsible with the government for the Nordic country’s foreign and security policy, it is important to understand that nuclear weapons are an essential part of NATO’s deterrence strategy.
“But it is clear that nuclear weapons are a preventive tool for NATO, not an end in themselves. I remind you that earlier this year all permanent members of the UN Security Council unanimously declared that a nuclear war cannot be won and should never happen,” he said.
Finland – along with Sweden – formalized its bid to join NATO last May, a decision that Niinistö says marked “a fundamental change in the political history” of the Nordic country after decades of non-alignment.
All member states of the Atlantic Alliance except two (Turkey and Hungary) have already ratified the accession of the only two Nordic nations that remained outside NATO.
As the ratification process concludes, both Finland and Sweden have ruled out setting any preconditions for their accession, despite pressure from public opinion to write out renouncing nuclear weapons and permanent NATO bases in their respective territories.
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has stated on several occasions that she believes it is “very important” not to set such preconditions so as not to limit room for maneuver in the future, although she has admitted that she sees it “very unlikely” that Finland will have nuclear weapons will accommodate.
The stationing of nuclear weapons in Finland would be viewed as a serious provocation by neighboring Russia, with which it shares a 1,340-kilometer border.
In addition, this would require a change in the law as Finnish law currently prohibits the importation, manufacture, storage and detonation of nuclear explosive devices. EFE
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