Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin on Friday said that Russia’s invasion of its neighbouring country, Ukraine has shown that Europe is too reliant on the United States for its own security.
Marin, who is currently in Australia, said that Europe’s defences need to be strengthened. Notably, the statement comes as Finland awaits membership to NATO.
While addressing the Lowy Institute think tank in Sydney yesterday, Marin said, “I must be brutally honest with you, Europe isn’t strong enough right now. We would be in trouble without the United States,” adding that she had spoken with many US politicians who had said they think Europe should be stronger.
“The United States has given a lot of weapons, a lot of financial aid, a lot of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and Europe isn’t strong enough yet,” the Finnish PM said.
It should be noted here that the US is the biggest arms supplier to the war-struck Ukraine and has been providing Kyiv with major military aid in its conflict with Russia. According to a research Washington has committed $18.6 billion to Ukraine till date ever since the war began. As per the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, European Union comes in second, followed by the UK.
She said that European countries’ own stocks are now depleting and the countries need to look for ways to bolster European defences. “Europe must ensure that it is building those capabilities when it comes to European defence, European defence industry, and making sure that we could cope in different kinds of situation,” Marin added.
The PM also called some European countries for trying to build closer ties with Russia in recent decades. “For a long time, Europe was building a strategy for Russia… to buy energy from Russia and to closen those economic ties, and we thought that this would prevent the war,” she said. But it has “proven entirely wrong”.
Marin further said that European countries should have been more alert to the warnings from Poland and the Baltics, who had said that Russia does not “care about their economic ties, they don’t care about the sanctions, they don’t care about any of that” when it comes to invading Ukraine.
(With inputs from agencies)
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from 'Europe isn't strong enough, would be in trouble without the US': Finnish PM Sanna Marin
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