Cooperation with Russia necessary: Finnish President
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Finnish President Sauli Niinisto underlines that his country needs to cooperate with Russia, at least on the basis of a shared border.
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Finnish President Sauli Niinisto speaks in Helsinki, Finland, November 8, 2020 (Reuters)
Finland must continue to cooperate with Russia, as it is necessary, at least due to the shared border they have, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said on Sunday.
"We should continue to cooperate, at least because we share a border that is more than 1,000 kilometers [621 miles] long," Niinisto said, as aired by Finnish radio station YLE.
The President also revealed that Helsinki and Moscow were cooperating on a daily basis on the border area, though he noted that it would take some time to rebuild the trust between them.
"Let's see when the situation clears up. Quite possibly not during my presidency," Niinisto added.
Relations between Finland and Russia turned sour as of late over Finland's aspirations to join NATO, as well as the situation in Ukraine.
Currently, there are talks about Finland and Sweden joining the alliance. On July 5, the permanent representatives of NATO member states signed accession protocols for the two Scandanavian countries at the alliance's headquarters in Brussels.
All members of the bloc have to ratify the protocols according to their national legislation.
Out of all the NATO members, Hungary and Turkey are the only countries that still did not clear Sweden and Finland's accession.
The Hungarian Prime Minister said in late November that his country's parliament plans to ratify NATO membership for Finland and Sweden in early 2023.
Meanwhile, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin discussed in October with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban issues pertaining to the accession of Finland to NATO and announced that based on the discussions, there should not be any problem.
On June 28, Sweden and Finland signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding with Turkey in which they pledged to address Ankara’s concerns over their stance toward the PKK, YPG, and the Gulen movements.
In the memorandum, the two Nordic countries had agreed to lift their embargoes on weapons deliveries to Turkey, which were imposed in response to Ankara's 2019 military incursion into Syria.
Erdogan's office said in late June that Finland and Sweden agreed to abandon their embargo on Turkey's military-industrial complex, adding that the two countries agreed to amend their national legislation "in the field of counter-terrorism and the defense industry."
They also agreed to ban "fundraising and recruitment activities" for the Kurdish militants and "prevent terrorist propaganda against Turkey," Erdogan's office said, adding that both countries agreed to extradite those suspected of terrorism.
