Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto has assured on Monday that Helsinki has no plans to allow the deployment of nuclear weapons on its territory once it joins NATO’s ranks, amid tensions over the war in Ukraine.
Niinisto stressed that nuclear weapons are an essential part of the Atlantic Alliance’s deterrence capabilities, although he stressed that «there are no signs» that any country will offer them to Finland for deployment.
Thus, the Finnish president has stressed that there can be no winners in a nuclear war and has advocated avoiding a conflict of this type, as reported by the Finnish public broadcaster, Yle.
Niinisto also stated that the country’s possible accession to NATO has made progress in recent weeks and pointed out that it will materialize «in a reasonable period of time», amidst recent criticism of Helsinki by Turkey.
On the other hand, he regretted that «there is no end in sight» to the war in Ukraine and stressed that Ukraine has the right to defend its territorial integrity in the face of the Russian offensive, unleashed on February 24 on the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In this vein, he has applauded the efforts of French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to maintain a dialogue with Moscow. «This is solely aimed at stopping the killing. I think it is a worthwhile goal,» he concluded.
