Mozambique: President Nyusi receives Letters of Credence from four new Ambassadors
Photo: O País
Finland will push ahead with negotiations to join NATO, regardless of threats from Russia, according to the Finnish ambassador in Maputo, Anna Kaisa.
She told Mozambican journalists that she regarded membership of NATO as a way of protecting her country from the constant threats made by Russia against countries that were once part of the Russian empire.
Back in February the Russian regime had menaced Finland saying that Finnish membership of NATO would have “serious military consequences”.
Cited in Tuesday’s issue of the Maputo daily “O Pais”, Kaisa said her government is not frightened by such threats.
“It’s an independent decision, and the reaction will be something else”, she said. The Finnish government will start matters domestically, she added, rallying public support for NATO membership. If that was successful, Finland would make a formal application to join NATO.
“In April our government will begin this discussion with parliament”, continued Kaisa. “The result is unpredictable. It could go one way or the other”.
She added that Finland is interested in making a joint application with Sweden, but this might not happen because, despite much common history, “we’re different countries”.
For decades Finland and Sweden have prided themselves on their neutrality – but the Russian aggression against Ukraine has brought that neutrality into question. Kaisa argued that membership of NATO did not cause Russian threats but was a consequence of them.
She stressed that membership of NATO is voluntary, and that eastern European countries joined NATO “because they wanted greater protection, essentially against Russian threats. All these countries have a history of Russian attacks”.
Kaisa said it made no sense for Russia to claim that membership of NATO is a reason for going to war.
Finland was the first part of the Tsarist empire to break away. The government of Vladimir Lenin granted Finland its independence shortly after the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.
After World War II, Finland decided to join no military alliances. “But after the Russian attack against Ukraine, our position has changed very rapidly, and there is now a great deal of domestic support for joining NATO”, said Kaisa.
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