Foreign Affairs Committee chairman: Listen to Russia's comments on NATO

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The chairman of Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee Pertti Salolainen (Nat. Coalition Party) says that Russia's repeated warnings on the NATO issue have put Finland in a new situation with respect to security policy.
     
Both Russia's current President Vladimir Putin, and his upcoming successor Dmitri Medvedev have warned Russia's neighbours against joining the alliance.
      In this light, Salolainen says that Finland's possibilities of getting into NATO easily are history.
      "It has repeatedly been stated from the Russian leadership that the NATO membership of Ukraine and Georgia, and any other country that has a border with Russia, would be a threat to Russia", Salolainen said in a television interview programme on YLE TV1 on Saturday morning.
      "It has become customary here to say that Finland makes its own decisions... But now we are in a new kind of situation", Salolainen said.
     
A few years ago during the presidency of Boris Yeltsin, joining NATO would have been much easier for Finland, Salolainen says.
      He feels that now the significance of Russia's recent warnings should be considered, especially during preparations for the government's next security and defence policy report.
     
Reacting to Salolainen's views, Juha Korkeaoja (Centre), Chairman of the Defence Committee said in an interview with YLE TV News that Russia's policy on the matter had not changed.
      He also insisted that Finland cannot be lumped together with Ukraine and Georgia.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Finland neglecting its Russia policy (26.3.2008)
  Poll: Finns wary of prospect of Putin staying in Russian leadership (4.1.2008)
  NEWS ANALYSIS: Finland avoids criticising Russian elections (5.12.2007)

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