Sipilä accuses Rinne of security policy

The political rift on whether it will be realistic for Finland to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) widened on Tuesday.

The outgoing Prime Minister and Chairman of the Suomen Keskusta (Centre Party of Finland), Juha Sipilä said on Tuesday that poll-leading opposition Sosialidemokraattinen Puolue (Social Democratic Party of Finland-SDP) leader Antti Rinne had "restricted the freedom of movement" of Finland through speculating last week that Finland possibly would not be admitted into NATO.

Sipilä said at an election roundtable arranged by a Finnish language newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that a NATO membership is "not in the interest of Finland now", but "we should not ourselves" give statements like what Rinne said.

Rinne defended his statement, saying again that there was no certainty about the attitude U.S. President Donald Trump has towards admitting new members into NATO. He underlined that he did not mean that Finland should give up the "NATO option" in the way it has been formulated in the program of the current government. "An independent country decides what it wants to do," said Rinne.

Rinne accused Kansallinen Kokoomus (National Coalition Party-NCP) 's chairman Petteri Orpo of preventing a discussion on "a subject that is very clear."

Rinne used the cold war era term "Finlandization". In the 1970s and 1980s, the word was used by critics in the west claiming that discussion about the USSR and security issues between Finland and the USSR was discouraged in Finland. Rinne said there are now "finlandized men" on both sides of him. Rinne was sitting between Sipilä and Orpo.

Orpo said his party continues endorsing a possible NATO membership but has not been active of late as there is no national political majority for it.

He said Finland is a good companion to NATO and would be "militarily more capable than some NATO member countries" are. "We must adhere to the possibility that we could apply," he said, adding that work for defense under the flag of the European Union is not in contravention of the relationship with NATO.

Li Andersson, Chairperson of Vasemmistoliitto (Left Alliance), claimed the Kokoomus were not really pursuing the goal. Andersson said a possible NATO membership for Finland would worsen the security position of the country and increase tension in the Baltic basin.

Paavo Väyrynen, a long time centrist foreign minister and now a candidate for an independent group, said he was pleased with the way the security policy approach the social democrats have developed.