Ukraine's accession to NATO does not pose threat to other countries - Finnish MFA
Photo: Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs Elina Valtonen (Vitalii Nosach, RBC-Ukraine)
Ukraine's accession to NATO does not pose a threat to other countries. The alliance's expansion occurs at the request of democratic countries and is not aggressive, states Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs, Elina Valtonen, according to My Ukraina.
The Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs noted that NATO expands when free nations decide to join the alliance.
"We have made it very clear in our messages, not only to the American audience and the future president (of the USA, Donald Trump – ed.) and his team, that there is no threat from NATO. This is very similar to the narrative long used by Russia, accusing NATO or the so-called 'NATO expansion' of its own aggression," Valtonen said.
She also emphasized that NATO's expansion is not aggressive in nature. The Ukrainian people have the right to decide their own future, and should they wish to join NATO, it will not pose a threat to any country.
"And one day, I hope, in the near future, this will happen with the Ukrainian people if they decide so. And again, this is not a threat to anyone," she stressed.
On January 7, during a press conference, Trump claimed that he supposedly understands why Russia attacked Ukraine.
He noted that the US had previously opposed Ukraine's NATO membership, but the Biden administration changed this position, which could have raised concerns in Russia.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has already responded to this statement. More details on this can be found in the RBC-Ukraine material.
