The American President, Joe Bidensaid this Friday that there is “an opportunity to further strengthen the relationship” with Finland, a country bordering Russiareceiving his Finnish counterpart, but neither mentioned an eventual accession to the NATO.
Finland “is an important ally of the United States, a strong defense partner, and a NATO partner, in strengthening the security of the Baltic Sea,” the US president said in the Oval Office.
“I want to thank you for your leadership. We need you today,” said Finnish President Sauli Niinisto.
“We have a longstanding partnership, very good relations, and I hope … we can strengthen them, between the United States, Finland and all the Nordic countries,” he said.
None of the leaders mentioned the possible accession of Finland to NATO.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has sparked a heated debate in Finland over whether the country should join NATO and a recent poll shows that, for the first time, a majority of Finns are in favor of joining.
The Finnish president tried to calm things down by saying on Thursday that “in the midst of an acute crisis, (it is) particularly important to keep a cool head and carefully assess the impact of the Ukrainian crisis on our security.”
A Finnish accession to NATO, possibly accompanied by Sweden, would infuriate Moscow, which does not want the military alliance to spread closer to its borders.
