HELSINKI, Aug. 25 (Xinhua) -- Finnish President Sauli Niinisto on Saturday wanted to play down the vision that Finland has a special relationship with Russia.
Interviewed on national radio, Niinisto said there is "no such mythical relationship". Niinisto met Russian President Vladimir Putin on Aug. 22 in Sochi, southern Russia.
Commenting on the statement, Ari Hahkuhta, chief political correspondent of the national broadcaster Yle, noted that the president wanted to reject any rebirth of the claims about "Finlandization".
The word Finlandization, which was used by parts of the western media during the cold war, conveyed the message that although Finland was a democracy in the western sense of the word and claimed to be neutral, Finland allegedly accepted Soviet influence on foreign policy matters and promoted initiatives that met Soviet interests.
Hakahuhta said that it would not be in the interest of Finland, if outside observers would place the country somewhere between Russia and the European Union (EU) in the Finnish attitude towards the Ukraine crisis, for example.
Niinisto said he believes Putin has actually more contact with some other leaders, such as German chancellor Angela Merkel, French president Emmanuel Macron, Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz and the new Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte.
In the radio interview, Niinisto also said Putin has actually wanted to bring Russia closer to Europe.
Niinisto recalled that Putin had said during their meeting a year ago that "a strong EU would be in the interest of Russia".
Niinisto noted that the nerve poison incidents in Britain brought a flaw to the development, but thereafter the meetings between Putin and EU leaders have had an agreeable tone.
"But Russia cannot make progress on two tracks at the same time. It cannot try to warm up economic relations with Europe, if no progress is made on the Ukraine issue," Niinisto said.
Hakahuhta noted that even though Niinisto did not say it, the principle applies the other way round as well: An EU leader cannot imagine just promoting economic relations and forgetting the issue of Crimea.
Niinisto welcomed the increased interest in Europe for national defense. "Each country must be able to defend itself," he said when commenting on the agreements on defense Finland currently has with the United States, Sweden, Britain and Germany.
The Finnish president underlined that Finland has no automatic alliance with anyone, but indicated that defense cooperation could be enhanced in a crisis situation. He went into World War II history, noting that Germany and Japan had no pre-war alliance, but became allies.
Commenting on Friday's decision to enter the French-led European Intervention Initiative, Niinisto noted that this is only the letter-of-intent stage. Actual defense matters would be discussed next winter, he said.
