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Joining NATO is not current issue for Finland due to low support from nation - PM

"Now we are very satisfied with the close partnership with the Alliance, though purely formal; though we do not have security guarantees in case of attacks", - Alexander Stubb said

© EPA/STEPHANIE LECOCQ

BERLIN, October 5. /TASS/. Finland’s most citizens would not want their country to join NATO, and thus the issue is not on the agenda, Finland’s Prime Minister Alexander Stubb said in an interview with Germany’s Spiegel.

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“We should have joined NATO in 1995, when we joined the European Union. But now we are very satisfied with the close partnership with the Alliance, though purely formal; though we do not have security guarantees in case of attacks. Anyway, I do not see a majority calling for joining (NATO),” he said.

Besides, the prime minister stressed importance of economic relations with Russia.

“If everything is good in the Russian economy, everything will be good in ours, too,” he said. Thus, Helsinki is for “diplomatic settlement of the Ukrainian conflict,” which has been a reason for the sanctions against Russia. Finland is also affected by the sanctions, the prime minister added.

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