Finland will not be platform for potential negotiations between Trump and Putin - Foreign Minister Valtonen
Finland does not plan to host a possible new meeting between dictator Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
This is stated in the material of The Times, Censor.NET informs.
Earlier, Donald Trump said that within one day of being elected to the post of US president, he would conclude an agreement on ending the war in Ukraine. He also promised to restore relations with Putin.
Helsinki was a favorite city for meetings between the leaders of the US and the USSR during the Cold War. However, Trump will have to find an alternative venue for discussions. In Finland, the possibility of holding peace talks, which could lead to the potential division of Ukraine, has been ruled out.
"I would completely rule out holding such discussions in Helsinki if Russia does not take significant steps to show that it wants to return to respect for international law," said Finland's Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen.
"Currently, we are not conducting any political dialogue with Russia, and we do not plan to start it as long as Russia continues to invade a sovereign state in the neighborhood," the minister added.
The Times points out that Helsinki's refusal to accept talks between the US and Russia indicates a change in Finland's policy after the invasion of Ukraine, as a result of which the country abandoned its post-war neutrality and joined NATO.
Gerald Ford and Leonid Brezhnev signed the Helsinki Accords there in 1975; Mikhail Gorbachev and George W. Bush returned to Helsinki after 15 years; Bill Clinton and Boris Yeltsin chose the Finnish capital for their summit in 1997.
Trump's meeting with Putin in 2018 appears to have been the last time Finland acted as a mediator between the world's nuclear superpowers, the newspaper concluded.
