HELSINKI (Reuters) – Finland’s President-elect Alexander Stubbe said on Monday that his country remained calm despite former U.S. President Donald Trump’s critical comments on recent military alliances and that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization He said that Japan should focus on joining (NATO).
Trump, the front-runner for the Republican nomination in November’s US presidential election, said last week that he does not want to protect NATO members from a future Russian attack if they are slowing their contributions to NATO. Stated.
“The US election campaign is very different from the Finnish election, and the rhetoric used is much stronger…At this stage we need to remain calm and focus on building NATO membership,” Stubb said at a press conference. I think it’s best to do that.”
Finland, which won NATO membership in April last year in response to neighboring Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, is spending more on defense than the 2% of gross domestic product agreed upon by NATO members, Stubb said. added.
Prime Minister Kaja Kalas of Finland’s neighboring NATO ally Estonia said on Monday that President Trump’s comments should be a wake-up call for allies to increase defense spending.
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Mr Stubb said he wanted to ensure that Finland played a decisive role in NATO. “We want to be at the heart of decision-making and sit around the table where decisions are made,” he said.
In a historic reversal in security policy after decades of military non-alignment, Finland last year became NATO’s 31st member state seeking better protection against any Russian threat.
Stubbe, who will take office on March 1, is pro-European and a strong supporter of Ukraine, which has taken a hard line against Russia, which shares a long border with Finland.
“Until Russia ends its war of aggression against Ukraine, it will be very difficult to maintain relations with Russia,” said the first president of the former neutral Finland, who is committed to maintaining good relations with Russia. is not an important mission, Stubbe said.
Data showed on Sunday that the centre-right former prime minister and investment banker won 51.6% of the 3 million votes cast in the election, beating Liberal runner-up, Pekka Haavisto of the Green Party. He defeated Mr. by a narrow margin.
Satu Lappalainen, who has been in his 39th year, said: “I’m really happy that Alexander Stubbe won. I hope it will,” he said. -An old consultant from Helsinki.
(Reporting by Essi Lehto and Tom Little in Helsinki; Editing by Terje Solsvik, Stine Jacobsen, Louise Rasmussen and Mark Heinrich)
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