In a live interview on Saturday morning with Yle’s Ykkösaamu, Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen stressed that the Finnish ship is not sinking despite his surprise decision to step down at the end of his term as National Coalition party chair and Prime Minister, announced a week ago Friday.
"Particularly after the decisions that have been made by the government this spring, I view Finland's future as safer than before,” he said.
He based his surprise decision to leave politics on the time being right: "The National Coalition Party needs a new chairman, new people and new ideas that will take Finland forward.”
Pro-NATO
Katainen expressed his opinion that Finland should consider NATO membership along with Sweden, when the time is right.
"My personal opinion is that Finland should belong to NATO. It would strengthen Finland’s position. But I’m in the minority," he said, stressing that the current government does not support his opinion and that the official foreign policy stance of Finland has not changed.
Katainen said that there is no acute security risk facing Finland because of the situation in Ukraine. He feels, however, that Finland should enhance integration with other countries, including Russia. He hopes for more diverse investments by Russians in Finland and Finns in Russia. And for that matter, with other countries.
"We should not be driven by fear, we should embrace open, liberal, international integration," said Katainen.
As such, a re-think of Finland’s foreign policy is required. ”It means that we take care of our defense and security policies to ensure that we don’t end up as one small country alone,” he said.
He also pointed out that Russia has said that it’s ready to defend its citizens outside of its own borders.
"This is a serious issue that should be discussed openly," said Katainen, who especially thanked Yle for its Russian-language news service, Novosti, which allows Russian-speakers in Finland to follow the news in their own mother-tongue.
