Finnish Prime Minister Shana Marin today presented a "very frank" assessment of Europe's capabilities in relation to Russia's war against Ukraine, stating bluntly that it is not "strong enough" to oppose Moscow on its own.
During her visit to Australia, Marin stressed that Russia's invasion and occupation of Ukraine revealed Europe's weaknesses and strategic mistakes against Moscow.
"I must be absolutely frank with you. Europe is not strong enough at the moment, we would face difficulties without the US," she said in a speech at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.
The Finnish politician insisted that Ukraine must receive aid "by any means necessary", adding that the US had played a central role in providing Kiev with arms, financial aid and humanitarian assistance necessary to halt Russia's advance.
"We have to make sure that we also strengthen the capabilities of the European defence, the European defence industry and that we are able to deal with different kinds of situations."
Finland gained independence from Russia almost 105 years ago.
Finland gained independence from Russia almost 105 years ago.
Marin criticized EU policies that focus on the importance of having a dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said the bloc should have listened to its members who were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
After joining the EU in 2004, states such as Estonia and Poland called on other bloc members to take a harder line on Putin, a view not shared by countries such as France, Germany and Italy that favoured closer economic ties with Moscow.
"For a long time Europe had a strategy towards Russia, which was aimed at strengthening our economic relations, buying energy from Russia () we thought this would prevent a war," but this approach turned out to be "very bad," Marin assessed
"They don't care about economic relations, they don't care about sanctions."
"They don't care about economic relations, they don't care about sanctions. They don't care about any of that," he concluded.
Source: APM
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