HELSINKI, Nov 26 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said that his country has no intention of conducting political discussions with Russia regarding the situation on the two countries’ border.
For his part, Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen said that the Government will close the remaining checkpoint with Russia if the neighboring country continues to carry out a joint operation to “push asylum seekers through”. border”.
Rantanen stated: “If the Russian authorities continue to transfer migrants to or near the border, the situation is such that we will blockade our entire Eastern border. This has nothing to do with immigration policy, this is purely a matter of national security.”
According to information from the Russian border guard, the border authorized representatives of Finland and Russia hold regular meetings, but the negotiations have not led to a solution to stabilize the situation at the border.
Since Nov 18, Finnish authorities have closed 4 out of 8 checkpoints for 4 months: Vaalimaa, Nuijamaa, Imatra and Niirala. After that, Helsinki decided to close three more checkpoints on the border with Russia, except Raya-Jooseppi, until Dec 23.
Russia said it does not rule out the possibility that Finnish authorities could completely close the border. As Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko emphasized, in this case Helsinki will harm its own interests.
The Kremlin also expressed regret over the decision to close Finnish checkpoints and rejected Finnish authorities’ accusations that Russia had encouraged the flow of migrants at the border to punish Finland for joining. NATO.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova previously stated that Moscow is ready to cooperate with Finnish officials to reach an agreement on the border issue. She argued that Finland should have “put forward its concerns to find a mutually acceptable solution”.
About 600 migrants without valid visas and documents, mainly from the Middle East and Africa, arrived in Finland in November compared with a few dozen last September and October. Finnish border officials said they included residents from Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Kenya, Morocco and Somalia. — NNN-AGENCIES
