Former President Martti Ahtisaari says that Finland’s political leaders should think about what kind of an image Finland wants to project to the outside world when it stays outside NATO.
“When I watch domestic debate, I do not really believe that NATO membership is moving forward. We have to look and see what group we belong to. Are we ending up in the same groups as Ukraine and Belarus?” Ahtisaari said on Saturday on a morning television interview programme on the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE).
“We have to take a look and see how it affects the Finnish brand – Finland’s image in the world.”
Ahtisaari said that debate on NATO membership in Finland suggests that people in Finland do not believe that Russia can change. He said that it is actually insulting toward Russia to continue to see the country as no different from what the Soviet Union used to be.
Ahtisaari emphasised that NATO is not a threat to Russia.
Ahtisaari, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 for his achievements in peace mediation, said that he supports efforts by Prime Minister Mari Kiviniemi (Centre) and Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb (Nat. Coalition Party) to turn Finland into a significant player in international peace mediation.
“Finland has an excellent reputation as a peacekeeping country. Our reputation is that of an active country with a focus on peacekeeping activities, and as such we can well expand this activity into the resolution of conflicts.”
The former President said that neither himself, nor Green MP Pekka Haavisto - who has also been active in conflict resolution - are “miracle men”.
“We have been given the opportunity to show that we know how to mediate. I know many such people in Finland”, Ahtisaari pointed out.
