©Reuters. Alexander Stubbe of the National Coalition Party (NCP), who was declared the winner of the second round of the Finnish presidential election held on Sunday, attends a press conference in Helsinki, Finland on February 12, 2024.Antti Aimo-Koivisto/Leti
HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finland’s President-elect Alexander Stubbe said on Monday that the country remained calm despite former U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent comments about military alliances, saying the country would remain calm and agree to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). He said that the focus should be on membership.
Trump, the front-runner to become the Republican nominee in November’s election, said last week that he does not want to protect NATO members from future Russian attacks if they are slowing their contributions to NATO. Ta.
“The US election campaign is very different from the Finnish election and the rhetoric used is also much stronger…At this stage we need to remain calm and build our NATO membership,” Stubb said at a press conference. I think it’s best to focus on that.”
Stubbe added that Finland spends more on defense than the 2% of gross domestic product agreed to by NATO members.
On Sunday, Stubbe narrowly won Finland’s presidential election and will take over security and foreign policy on March 1, including the recently recognized NATO member’s stance on Russia, with which it shares a long border. .