Finnish Prime Minister Shana Marin today presented a “very frank” assessment of Europe's capabilities in relation to Russia's war against Ukraine, stating in no uncertain terms that it is not “strong enough” to stand up to Moscow on its own.
During her visit to Australia, Marin stressed that the invasion and occupation of Ukraine by Russia revealed Europe's weaknesses and strategic mistakes vis-à-vis Moscow.
«I have to be absolutely honest (...) with you. Europe is not strong enough at the moment, we would have difficulties without the US,» she said in a speech at the Lowy Institute in Sydney.
The Finnish politician insisted that Ukraine must receive aid “by any means necessary”, adding that the US had played a central role in providing Kiev with arms, financial aid and humanitarian assistance necessary to halt Russia's advance.
«We have to make sure that we also strengthen the capabilities of European defence, of the European defence industry and that we are able to deal with different kinds of situations,» he said.
Finland gained independence from Russia almost 105 years ago.
Marin criticized EU policies that focus on the importance of having a dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin and said the bloc should have listened to its members who were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
After joining the EU in 2004, states such as Estonia and Poland called on other bloc members to take a harder line against Putin, a view not shared by countries such as France, Germany and Italy, which favoured closer economic relations with Moscow.
«For a long time Europe has been pursuing a strategy towards Russia, which was aimed at strengthening our economic relations, buying energy from Russia (...) we believed that this would prevent a war”, but this approach turned out to be “very bad», Marin assessed.
«They don't care about economic relations, they don't care about sanctions. They don't care about any of that,» he concluded.
