Finnish President Alexander Stubb stated on Tuesday that he did not believe nuclear weapons would be delivered to Sweden and Finland, but underlined that it was important to maintain a level of uncertainty.
Stubb arrived in Sweden for a two-day meeting on relations and business ties, as well as support for Ukraine and preparations for the NATO summit in Washington in July. In his first address to the Riksdag (Swedish parliament), Stubb discussed the two countries’ parallel paths to NATO membership, which began in May 2022.
Part of the closeness between our countries is due to our common understanding of security. We have always had an imperialist neighbour. And now I’m not referring to Norway.
The President stated that Finland and Sweden should integrate their defence into NATO, which, in his view, was part of entering the core of the alliance.
He also noted that after joining NATO, both countries had more space for manoeuvre in foreign policy. Factors that were supposed to unite the whole world, such as free movement, trade, technology, energy, information and currency, had become a tool in dividing the world, he added.
The methods of co-operation have been weaponised. History did not end. The rest of the world did not become like Sweden and Finland.
Stubb and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson are visiting Gothenburg in southern Sweden on Wednesday, accompanied by the Swedish royal couple.
Finland applied to join the alliance along with neighbouring Sweden three months after the war in Ukraine broke out in February 2022. Finland joined NATO in 2023, while Turkey delayed Sweden’s application due to Ankara’s complaints that Stockholm was reluctant to crack down on the PKK listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US, the UK and the EU.
Turkey’s parliament approved Sweden’s membership bid in January, but Hungary delayed it until Prime Minister Kristersson visited Budapest on February 23. Then, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán approved Sweden’s accession.
Sweden officially joined NATO on March 7, ending decades of neutrality since World War II and becoming the latest country to join the alliance.
