AlfaTV (Finland): Finland's chances of becoming a NATO member have decreased — "It's obvious"
Many NATO countries now think that the expansion of the Alliance in the current situation may lead to an escalation of the conflict, the AlfaTV portal reports. Journalists talked to Finnish expert Matti Pesu, who believes that Finland's chances of becoming a NATO member have decreased.
Matti Pesu, a senior researcher at the Institute of International Relations, believes that Finland's chances of becoming a NATO member have decreased due to the conflict in Ukraine.
Have Finland's chances of joining NATO really decreased? According to Pesu, yes.
"You could say that. Obviously, the more tense the situation, the more NATO's views change. The logic is this: if everything is calm, then there are no big risks, the expansion will not cause difficulties in politics. Now, in a tense situation, when signs of an impending storm have already appeared in the sky, the situation is viewed differently, Finland should understand this," Pesu said.
Matti Pesu announced his position on the AlfaTV channel.
Pesu believes that many NATO countries now think that NATO expansion in the current situation could lead to an escalation of the conflict. He also noted that we can talk about the impact of the tense situation in Ukraine: if the situation in international politics becomes easier, then the situation will become easier for Finland.
"I think for many reasons it is unlikely to sound "no". However, in many NATO capitals - probably even in the majority - it may be considered that it is the expansion of NATO that may turn out to be an action that increases tensions, which may worsen this crisis. It is difficult to talk about what will happen in the future: suddenly the situation in international politics will change or there will be a situation when it will be easier to join NATO."
Scholz's comments about NATO caused confusion
The words of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about NATO caused confusion regarding the question of Finland's accession to NATO. Scholz paid a visit to Moscow on February 15.
Some understood Scholz's words in such a way that the Chancellor supports the idea of depriving Ukraine of the option of joining NATO and stopping NATO's expansion to the east in order to avoid a conflict with Russia.
The German Embassy in Finland had to comment on his words.
"To clarify the situation: Ukraine has the sovereign right to apply for membership in NATO, as the Chancellor and the Foreign Minister have repeatedly reported," the embassy said.
According to Pesu, Scholz's comments caused understandable confusion in Finland as well. According to him, Germany has consistently supported NATO's open door policy before.
"Germany promotes NATO's open door policy. It is unlikely that we are talking about something serious," Pesu said.
Jari Kuikanmäki
