Presidents Toomas Hendrik Ilves and Sauli Niinistö with Mrs. Evelin Ilves and Mrs. Jenni Haukio during Estonian President’s two day state visit to Finland on May 13-14, 2014.
The Finnish daily Helsingin Sanomat said that between the presidential press services’ official lines on close relations, President Toomas Hendrik Ilves displayed impatience with reasoning employed by NATO-skeptic Finnish politicians and that his view on the alliance’s role clashed with that of his host, Finnish head of state Sauli Niinistö.
“NATO is a difficult topic in the discussions between the presidents,” wrote Anna-Liina Kauhanen, “not least because Finland doesn’t want to join NATO right now, no matter how Ilves might try. And he is urging hard. He really wants NATO units in Estonia and NATO states around Estonia.”
“Ilves, the president of a NATO country, is among those for whom the solution is NATO: he wants to see Finland and Sweden in NATO and NATO units permanently in Estonia. That was clear from his speeches.”
Niinistö maintains that FInland and Sweden are no security vacuum, and that the EU should be included in defense. Ilves doesn’t put much stock in EU joint defense, as it would be non-binding, no matter what the Lisbon Treaty says.
At one point, Ilves retorted that it was unclear to him what aircraft Finland would use to send its Pasi armored transporters to assist those in need. He said he did not understand how NATO membership would hurt the conscript-based army, arguing that it would help save on costs.
Kauhanen wrote that the irritation was mutual: Niinistö was also less than pleased with the friction.
Ilves met with the President of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, on May 13, on the first day of his two-day state visit to Finland. Presidents’ talks focused on the changed security situation in Europe due to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its encouragement and support of separatism in eastern Ukraine.
The two presidents attended a Finnish-Estonian business seminar on May14, and Ilves spoke at the Finnish National Opera House to an audience of alumni of the Finnish Higher National Defense Courses.
His speech was entitled “North Europe After the Destruction of the Finnish Accords in Ukraine.” He also visited several Helsinki-area businesses.
