Finland PM Sanna Marin Says Europe is Not Strong Enough Without The US – In the wake of the Ukraine war, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin has urged Europe to develop its own defense capabilities, arguing that without US assistance, Europe is not resilient enough. “We should make sure that we are stronger,” Marin said in Sydney on Friday. “And I’ll be brutally honest with you, Europe isn’t strong enough. We would be in trouble without the United States.”
In response to a question regarding China’s responsibility to “rein in Russia” she made these statements. Marin said that while China could play a role, “We shouldn’t only rely on that.” Marin insisted Ukraine must be given “whatever it takes” to win the war, adding that the United States had been pivotal in supplying Kyiv with the weapons, finance and humanitarian aid necessary to blunt Russia’s advance.
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“We have to make sure that we are also building those capabilities when it comes to European defense, the European defense industry, and making sure that we could cope in different kinds of situations,” she said. Marin said that when Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February, the priority of most Finns changed “overnight” to security.
Until Russia invaded Ukraine, Finland’s priorities were to have working bilateral relations with Russia and be close partners with members of NATO, but not be a member, she said. “That was the best way to secure our nation.” Finland and Sweden applied to join the alliance in May, but are waiting on Turkey and Hungary to ratify their requests, which have been approved by the other 28 nations in the group.
Putin warned in June that if NATO were to establish military facilities in Finland and Sweden, Russia “would be obligated to respond symmetrically and raise the same threats for those territories where threats have emerged for us.” When asked what the most likely scenario was in terms of threats posed by Russia to Finland, with which it shares a 1,300-kilometer border, Marin responded, “We have extensive military forces, so we’re not expecting them to engage in that account and we’re not seeing any military action near the Finnish border.”
“But of course we are prepared for different kinds of hybrid attacks that we might see.” “We are preparing for different kinds of cyber-attacks. We’re preparing for different kinds of hybrid attacks, for misinformation.” Between February and late October, cyber-attacks on “critical targets” in Finland increased by a third, according to a recent article by Finnish broadcaster YLE citing Aapo Cederberg, the CEO of Cyberwatch Finland.
Russian hackers claimed responsibility for a denial-of-service attack on Finland’s parliamentary website and another Finnish state website in August, writing on Telegram that they had “decided to make a ‘friendly’ visit to neighboring Finland, whose authorities are so eager to join NATO,” according to YLE.
In September, Antti Pelttari, the director of Supo, the Finnish Security and Intelligence Service, warned that, “We consider it highly likely that Russia will turn to the cyber environment over the winter.” October alone saw what would previously have been three months’ worth of denial-of-service attacks, Trafficom, the Finnish transport and communications agency reported.
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Concerned about the possibility of additional hybrid strikes, such as weaponized mass migration, the major political parties of Finland have supported a proposal to construct a fence around parts of the country’s border with Russia. The nation is especially concerned about the increasing number of unlawful border crossings by Russian men fleeing the mobilization drive. According to Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, over 40,000 Russians have invaded Finland since the outbreak of conflict.
Finland has lately ceased issuing Russian citizens tourist visas. Friday, Marin stated, “It became morally unacceptable to allow the Russian middle and upper classes to continue to enjoy their vacations in Europe while their army kills, tortures and terrorizes Ukrainians.” Finland, which has a population of 5.5 million, still has military conscription for men, and has a wartime troop strength of 280,000, with 870,000 trained as reservists.
