Finland, the “land of dialogue” that puts an end to the world of blocks Corriere.it

he is Another paradox of this angry decade is the fact that as the world is turning back, facing the confrontation between Russia and the West provoked by Putin’s despicable aggression against Ukraine, Finland’s decision to join NATO ‘without delay’ It is expected towards the futureClosing an Era Forever: The Era of Post-WWII Arrangements and Envisioned Security Mechanisms in Opposition Among the Blocs That Ended with the Fall of the Berlin Wall. In short, we only turn the page when the old and the new coexist. In the language of the Prime Minister Sana Marine (whose bravery is a sign of indisputable hope in this bleak 2022 scenario), the language we listen in awe in Aki Kurismaki’s hyper-realistic films, I welcome their saying: “Tervetuloa!”. We said it in 1995 when Finland was one of the champions (along with Sweden and Austria) at one point – all positive and necessary – in EU enlargement process. We repeated this when the Finnish mark was replaced by the euro four years later.

So Finland is welcome in NATO. In NATO, faced with the unprecedented challenge against the international community launched by the leader of the Kremlin, he rediscovered the initial meaning of his existence, while continuing to be transformed into something different from the Charter of Nations, connected with the terrible events of the past. The century that left the Scandinavian country close to the Soviet Union for historical and geopolitical reasons. Everything has changed now. NATO is a guarantee of security for the time being Russia is more than just a threat. But the young, bright-smiling social democrat who leads the Helsinki government may also have realized the significance of the process that began with the end of Trump’s nightmare and was greatly accelerated by the aggression against Ukraine: Democratic countries must join forces, Even politically, to defeat threats against foundational values. NATO is one of the tools at their disposal.

Today, while Putin’s war continues and the crimes committed in the name of the will of power are getting more and more dangerous day by day, The Finnish move also has a peace value. Whatever Putin says, the reality is different: Moscow’s angry reactions are basically useless. It is a tradition in this country – the eighth largest in the European Union, on the border with Russia for more than a thousand kilometers – to take into account the value of dialogue, but above all the necessity of dialogue. Everyone will remember her.

Signed in Helsinki in 1975 Final Act of the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe (There was Leonid Brezhnev, Gerald Ford, Valéry Giscard d’Estaing, Helmut Schmidt, Erich Honecker, Aldo Moreau) which represented an essential step, of real historical significance, to reduce Cold War tensions. Thanks to the channel created by that long diplomatic practice, those who did not know each other began to talk to each other, and those who walked the path of confrontation began to listen to the reasons of others as well. All this can only happen in the capital of Finland. And it is not far, by sea and by land, from St. Petersburg..