Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Finland’s hawkish President Alexander Stubb will discuss Ukraine’s ‘victory plan’ on Tuesday, as the Finnish foreign minister urged Germany to shed its reservations about weapon deliveries and embrace its “very important role”.
Stubb and Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen arrived in Berlin on Monday (21 October).
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Germany has lifted restrictions [removal of restrictions on the use of Western weapons against military targets in Russia] only around the Kharkiv region, while Scholz refuses to deliver missiles of the range for which such removal is primarily relevant.
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Valtonen appeared to respond to Scholz’s reservations before Tuesday’s talks, urging Germany to show military leadership.
“It must be said in Berlin that we hope that Germany will play a very important role [in facing the Russian threat],” Valtonen said in German at a press conference with her Nordic and German counterparts on Tuesday.
“No matter what Russia says, we [must] understand that we aren’t responsible for any escalation because we work within international law,” she said. Valtonen added that those who believe that Russia will let go “if we down our weapons err.”
She thus echoed the position of Germany’s Christian Democratic opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, who has repeatedly pushed Scholz to deliver long-range weapons. Stubb, Valtonen, and Merz belong to the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), while Scholz is a Social Democrat.
Helsinki has allowed Ukraine to use its weapons against Russian territory in compliance with international law and backs restrictions being lifted.
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[Edit typo.]
Thank you. i didnt know about Finland joining in on the Nazis side. I thought they had only fought the Winter War to fend off the Sovjet invasion 1939-40
Nazis and Soviets made the deal to split Europe. The Soviets invaded Finland. Finland asked for help from others. UK sent Christopher Lee. The Winter War ended with significant losses.
Germany was fighting on the Eastern front so Finland started cooperating with them. Some say it was the lesser of two evils, but there was also fascist thought present. This led to the Continuation War which ended with an armistice and Finland was obligated to turn against Germany for the Lapland War.
Today’s NATO vs Russia has similar tones, Finland as a periphery nation was forced to pick the pragmatic choice.