Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Finland’s hawkish President Alexander Stubb will discuss Ukraine’s ‘victory plan’ on Tuesday, as the Finnish foreign minister urged Germany to shed its reservations about weapon deliveries and embrace its “very important role”.
Stubb and Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen arrived in Berlin on Monday (21 October) to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Nordic embassy in Germany.
The president, also the commander-in-chief of the Finnish army, is due to meet Scholz on Tuesday afternoon.
A German government spokesperson told reporters last week that the two leaders would discuss “bilateral and European policy issues against the backdrop of Russia’s war against Ukraine” and ” cooperation within NATO.”
Euractiv understands that this will almost certainly feature talks about Ukraine’s ‘victory plan’, which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented to European leaders in Brussels last week. The plan is supposed to force Russia to negotiate a peace deal.
Scholz has, however, been reserved about key Ukrainian demands. They include an immediate invitation for Ukraine to join NATO as well as the removal of restrictions on the use of Western weapons against military targets in Russia.
Germany has lifted such restrictions only around the Kharkiv region, while Scholz refuses to deliver missiles of the range for which such removal is primarily relevant.
“We have a responsibility to ensure that the war between Russia and Ukraine does not escalate into a war between Russia and NATO,” Scholz told journalists in Brussels last week when asked about long-range missiles.
NATO “not responsible for any escalation”
Valtonen appeared to respond to Scholz’s reservations before Tuesday’s talks, urging Germany to show military leadership.
“It must be said in Berlin that we hope that Germany will play a very important role [in facing the Russian threat],” Valtonen said in German at a press conference with her Nordic and German counterparts on Tuesday.
“No matter what Russia says, we [must] understand that we aren’t responsible for any escalation because we work within international law,” she said. Valtonen added that those who believe that Russia will let go “if we down our weapons err.”
She thus echoed the position of Germany’s Christian Democratic opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, who has repeatedly pushed Scholz to deliver long-range weapons. Stubb, Valtonen, and Merz belong to the centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), while Scholz is a Social Democrat.
Helsinki has allowed Ukraine to use its weapons against Russian territory in compliance with international law and backs restrictions being lifted.
“You can’t fight the war with one hand behind your back (…), so release the long-range missiles,” President Stubb told CNN last month.
[Edited by Alice Taylor-Braçe]
Source: euractiv.com
