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Finland’s prime minister said Friday that Europe “not strong enough” to face Moscow alone, in a “very honest” assessment of European capabilities after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On a visit to Australia, Sanna Marin said Russia’s invasion and occupation of neighboring Ukraine exposed Europe’s weaknesses and strategic mistakes in dealing with Moscow.
“I have to be very honest (…) with you, the Europe is not strong enough???????? Right now, we would be in trouble without the United States,” the country’s leader, a candidate for NATO membership, said in a speech at the Lowy Institute, a Sydney-based think tank.
Biden is surprised by “Russian cruelty” and says he will not reject a meeting with Putin if he wants to “end the war”
Marin insisted that Ukraine needs help in “all the senses“, adding that the United States has played a central role in providing Kiev with the necessary weapons, money and humanitarian aid to stop Russia’s advance.
“We have to make sure that we also strengthen these capabilities in terms of European defense, the European defense industry and that we can deal with different types of situations,” he said.
Finland gained independence from Russia nearly 105 years ago, inflicting heavy losses on the invading Soviet army soon after.
The Finnish leader criticized EU policies that stressed the importance of engaging with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying the European bloc should have listened to the Member States They were part of the former Soviet Union.
Since joining the EU in 2004, nations including Estonia and Poland have urged other EU members to take a tougher line with Putin, a stance rejected by France, Germany, Italy and Greece, which favored closer economic ties. with Moscow.
“For a long time, Europe built a strategy towards Russia to strengthen our economic ties, to buy energy from Russia… we thought this would prevent a war“, but this approach turned out to be “totally wrong”, criticized Marín.
“They don’t care about economic ties, they don’t care about sanctions. They don’t want to know about it.”
Source: Observadora
