Foreign Minister Valtonen: Finland Has Absolutely No Intention of Possessing Nuclear Weapons or Stationing Them on Its Territory

Interviewer: On all goods?

Elina Valtonen: Yes, on all goods. Everything imported from Russia into any EU country should also be subject to tariffs.

Interviewer: What maneuvers is Finland prepared to undertake to break the veto of pro-Putin Hungary and Slovakia? Would you be willing to strip them of their voting rights in the EU?

Elina Valtonen: That would also require a substantial majority's consent.

Finland supports decision-making by qualified majority voting in the EU's foreign and security policy, especially concerning sanctions. We hold a firm stance here.

Finland is a net contributor to the EU budget, and Finnish taxpayers aren’t happy that we've been funding Hungarian cohesion projects in recent years, while at the same time Hungary opposes us on foreign and security policy issues.

I'm fairly confident that the new German government will also adopt a strict position on this issue.

Interviewer: Describe the special relationship between the U.S. and Finland. You visited Washington in April. Every Estonian saw the picture of President Alexander Stubb golfing with Trump. What's your aim there?

Elina Valtonen: I don’t think we actually have a special relationship with the U.S.; rather, we have very good bilateral relations with them, just like many other European countries.

The main goal is to present a unified European message. Issues related to Ukraine currently dominate the agenda.

However, bilaterally we also maintain strong trade relations with the U.S. and discuss investments.

The U.S. has always valued Finland’s strong security contributions, as we have effectively organized our national defense.

Interviewer: Recently, there's been talk in Finland about nuclear weapons. What's behind this?

Elina Valtonen: Finland has absolutely no intention of possessing nuclear weapons or stationing them on its territory. We even have laws that explicitly prohibit this.

Interviewer: If Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were to call you right now, would you answer?

Elina Valtonen: That’s a very good question. Perhaps I would.

Maybe he’d like to inform the OSCE Chair (Finland holds the OSCE Chairmanship as of January 1, 2025 – ed.) that they deeply regret this war against another OSCE country, want to immediately stop it, and discuss OSCE measures that could help rebuild trust.

Interviewer: Is Finland ready to mediate in these matters, similarly to Turkey?

Elina Valtonen: That's a very distant prospect. We aren’t mediating anything at the moment because we maintain a very strong position, even as the OSCE Chair.

We condemn this illegal war Russia is waging against Ukraine. It violates not only the UN Charter but also the ten principles of the Helsinki Final Act.

Thus, we would not be neutral mediators under any circumstances, and Russia knows this too.

Interviewer: Do you believe the current ceasefire talks will end the war, and Ukraine will win?

Elina Valtonen: I don’t think there’s much to negotiate. They should lay down their weapons.

Interviewer: What’s your prediction about what we'll see in Ukraine this year?

Elina Valtonen: Earlier this year, I predicted there would be a ceasefire by the end of this year. But I don't know—we don't have high expectations regarding Russia. We hope it happens. We hope it marks the beginning of a just and lasting peace, and that's what we're working towards.