Nuclear weapons in Finland, Sweden unlikely: Finnish President

LONDON

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said Tuesday he does not believe nuclear weapons will be brought to Sweden and Finland but emphasized it is important to maintain a level of uncertainty.

The president made the comments during a two-day meeting in Sweden where the agenda will focus on relations and business ties, as well as support for Ukraine and preparations for a NATO summit in Washington in July.

In his first address, Stubb discussed the two countries' parallel routes to joining NATO, 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 neighbor. And now I'm not referring to Norway," he said in a speech in the Swedish parliament, or Riksdag.

Stubb said Finland and Sweden must integrate their defenses into NATO, which according to him, is a part of getting to the core of the Western alliance.

The president pointed out that since joining NATO, Sweden and Finland have more room to maneuver in foreign policy.

Speaking more broadly about international politics, he emphasized that “the post-Cold War period has ended.”

Factors that were supposed to unite the entire world such as free movement, trade, technology, energy, information and currency “are now tearing us apart,” he said.

“The methods of cooperation have been weaponized. History did not end. The rest of the world did not become like Sweden and Finland," he said.

On Wednesday, the Stubb and Kristersson will visit Gothenburg in southern Sweden, accompanied by the Swedish royal couple.

Finland submitted its application to join the Western alliance alongside neighboring Sweden, three months after Russia launched its “special military operation” in Ukraine in February 2022.

Finland joined NATO in 2023, while Sweden's application was delayed by Türkiye because of Ankara's complaints that Stockholm was reluctant to crack down on terror groups on its soil, namely the PKK, which is listed as a terror organization by Ankara, the US, UK and EU.

Türkiye's parliament approved Sweden's membership bid in January, but Hungary delayed it until Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson visited Budapest on Feb. 23, after which Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban approved Sweden's accession last month.

Sweden officially joined the NATO alliance on March 7, ending decades of post-Second World War neutrality and becoming the latest country to join the Western defense group.

Finland’s NATO membership drew military threats from the Kremlin with Russian President Vladimir Putin accusing the West of "dragging" the Nordic country into the military alliance and creating a rift between Moscow and Helsinki.

In December, Finland closed its border with Russia, with Finnish authorities accusing Moscow of carrying out a suspected "hybrid attack" and purposefully assisting undocumented migrants in crossing into the Nordic country, which Russia denied.