Finland's former president Sauli Niinistö believes that European leaders should engage in direct talks with Moscow instead of relying solely on information from Donald Trump. He also warns that Europe is losing its role as a global power.
Niinistö criticizes the current situation where European countries lack direct contact with Russian leaders, while US President Donald Trump negotiates with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Ukraine's future. Niinistö argues that Europe should instead initiate direct talks with Russia to influence the outcome of the war.
— French President Emmanuel Macron is likely the last one to have called, and before that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz about a year ago. And he was criticized for it, Niinistö told Finnish public broadcaster Yle.
He defended Scholz's decision to contact the Kremlin and describes the current situation as absurd.
— I defended him and still think that it is in a way an absurd situation that Europeans say they won't talk to the war criminal Putin. But Trump does it, and then we go and hear what they talked about, he explained.
Niinistö points out the paradox that Europeans are simultaneously worried that Putin and Trump will discuss Europe's future over the heads of the European countries themselves.
Europe has lost its global position
Furthermore, Niinistö notes that Europe's significance has decreased markedly during the 21st century. Today, it is primarily the US, China, and Russia that make the decisive decisions on the global stage.
When Finland joined the EU in the 1990s, the union was a voice that the world listened to. The situation was similar even after the turn of the millennium. Now, however, Europe has disappeared from the power quadrangle, according to Niinistö. He particularly points to how the US and China compete economically and divide the world between them in what he describes as a struggle for nations' loyalty.
— Europe must keep Europe European and must absolutely not submit to becoming an object of division, so that someone belongs to one camp and someone else to another, he says.
