Finland must mentally prepare to ultimately restore relations with Russia after the war in Ukraine ends, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said Monday during talks with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.We in Finland should psychologically get ready for the reality that eventually, relations with Russia will begin to recuperate, Stubb told press reporters in London, according to the news outlet Ilta-Sanomat.
Nothing eliminates the reality that Russia is and will constantly be Finlands neighbor.However, he worried that any thaw in Russian-Finnish relations would depend on Russia ending its war versus Ukraine and Finlands internal dispute on how to proceed.Stubb, who got here in London after meeting U.S.
President Donald Trump in Florida, has advocated for Russia and Ukraine to accept a complete ceasefire on April 20.
The Kremlin responded to Stubbs remarks on Tuesday, saying President Vladimir Putin was open to mutually advantageous and respectful ties with Finland if Helsinki sought the same.However, Kremlin representative Dmitry Peskov implicated Finland and Sweden, which signed up with NATO in 2023 in reaction to Russias full-scale intrusion of Ukraine, of dragging the U.S.-led alliances infrastructure onto their territory.We had no problem with [Finland and Sweden], Peskov said, accusing both nations of lowering relations to zero.Stubb stated in London on Monday that European leaders recently discussed when and how to resume negotiations with Putin however declined to share information publicly.Finland, which shares the European Unions longest border with Russia at 1,340 kilometers (830 miles), closed its border crossings in December 2023 following a surge in asylum seekers.