Finland prepares response to Russia’s security demands, says foreign minister

Finland and Sweden, two Arctic states that aren't NATO members, received a letter from Russia demanding security guarantees.

HELSINKI — Finland is preparing a response to a letter it received from Russia on Tuesday that asked for security guarantees from OSCE countries, Finnish foreign minister Pekka Haavisto said.

Finland shares a long border and a difficult history with Russia but is not a NATO member.

“This exchange is about the (Russian) thought that the West has added its own security at Russia’s expense. Obviously, the West has a completely different view on this,” Haavisto told reporters in Helsinki.

All members of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) have received a letter, Finland’s national broadcaster, YLE, said.

[Finland’s PM says NATO membership is ‘very unlikely’ on her watch]

Sweden — which, like Finland is not a NATO member — has also received a letter, Foreign Minister Ann Linde told Swedish radio. So has neighboring Norway, which is a part of the trans-Atlantic alliance, reported The Independent Barents Observer.

Linde declined to comment on what was in the letter.

“The Foreign Ministry gets a lot of letters which we deal with in the same way: we look at what’s in the letter, we analyze and we prepare any possible reply to the letter,” Linde said.

The Foreign Ministry could not immediately comment.

Linde will meet Haavisto in Stockholm on Wednesday, along with the defense ministers of the two countries, to discuss the security situation in Europe.