President of Finland Niiniste doubts that relations with Russia will be established in near future: "There is nothing to talk about now"
President of Finland Saule Niiniste believes that Helsinki should cooperate with Moscow given the large common border, but the normalization of Finnish-Russian relations in view of the war in Ukraine may take a long time.
Niiniste said this on the radio Yle, reports Censor.NET with reference to "European truth".
Answering the question about the future relations between Finland and Russia after the war in Ukraine, the Finnish President noted that it is difficult to talk about it now.
According to him, in the best case, it will take a long time to build trust between Helsinki and Moscow, and it is unlikely to happen during his term in office (the next presidential elections in Finland will be held in 2024).
At the same time, Niiniste added, Finland cannot forget that it has a long border with Russia.
"Russia will always be there in the future. Along this border, there will inevitably be almost daily practical administrative cooperation, which so far seems to be going smoothly in the border regions," he noted.
The President of Finland also mentioned navigation in the Gulf of Finland, the safety of which is also regulated by the system developed jointly with Estonia and Russia: "Of course, all these measures should be somehow adjusted so that there is no unnecessary disorder".
Niiniste later recalled that Finland was the first country to condemn the occupation of Crimea in 2014, and since May 2021, he has not been in touch with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"Of course, it (the possibility of holding talks with Putin) would appear if there was a desire to do so. But now there is nothing to talk about," the Finnish President stated.
