President Sauli Niinisto on Thursday said Finland would review its security policy to decide whether to join NATO.

The new review came just 18 months after the government completed its last assessment, taking on more urgency since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Many Finns have traditionally been wary of Russia, with which their Nordic country shares a 1,340 kilometres (830 miles) border and a history of two wars between 1939 and 1944, which cost Finland substantial territory.

However, public backing for joining NATO, traditionally around only 20 per cent, has grown over the past month.

“When alternatives and risks have been analysed, then it’s time for conclusions,’’ Niinisto told reporters, referring to the possibility of Finland joining the defence alliance.

“We have safe solutions also for our future; we must review them carefully.

“Not with delay, but carefully,’’ Mr Niinisto said.

He declined to give a time frame for the process.

Mr Niinisto met U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington and was due to hold a phone call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

He declined to say what he would say to Mr Putin, who calls Russia’s actions a special military operation to disarm its neighbour and dislodge leaders it calls neo-Nazis.

Kyiv and its Western allies said this was a baseless pretext to invade a country of 44 million people.

Finnish authorities said separately on Thursday that Finland had stocked up its emergency reserves which it has kept since the wars, adding more supplies such as fuels and primary production goods to its reserves. 

(Reuters/NAN)