{"id":19471,"date":"2024-02-11T00:40:51","date_gmt":"2024-02-11T05:40:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/voters-in-finland-will-choose-a-president-to-shape-a-new-nato-era\/11\/02\/2024\/"},"modified":"2024-02-11T00:40:51","modified_gmt":"2024-02-11T05:40:51","slug":"voters-in-finland-will-choose-a-president-to-shape-a-new-nato-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/voters-in-finland-will-choose-a-president-to-shape-a-new-nato-era\/11\/02\/2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Voters in Finland Will Choose a President to Shape a New NATO Era"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Finns will elect a new president on Sunday in the first national election since the country joined NATO, choosing a leader who will be critical to shaping the country\u2019s role in the alliance at a time of increasingly fraught relations with Russia.<\/p>\n
The election might typically gain little notice beyond the borders of the sparsely populated northern European country of 5.6 million. But Finland, the newest member of NATO, shares the longest border with Russia \u2014 some 830 miles \u2014 and its politics have taken on special interest to its European and American allies as the geopolitical order shifts.<\/p>\n
U.S. power is being challenged by Moscow and Beijing, and Europe is grappling with its largest land war since World War II. At the same time, the American commitment to aiding Ukraine looks increasingly in doubt, and an unpredictable American presidential election looms.<\/p>\n
Finland\u2019s president is responsible for foreign policy, and whoever wins will bear chief responsibility for steering the country through a changing world.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe future president is going to have an impact on what kind of a NATO country Finland will be in the future,\u201d said Jenni Karimaki, a political analyst at the University of Helsinki. \u201cNATO membership is one of the things creating interest in these elections \u2014 and of course, the overall global political situation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Finland\u2019s decision to join NATO was a sharp break with decades of <\/span>nonalignment, and the risks and responsibilities of the country\u2019s new place in the world dominated the campaign over who should succeed the popular Sauli Niinisto, whose second six-year term expires in March.<\/p>\n
The two candidates who made it to the runoff on Sunday \u2014 Alexander Stubb, of the center-right National Coalition Party, and Pekka Haavisto, of the center-left Green League \u2014 have both strongly supported the decision to join NATO and take a hard-line view on Russia. The differences between them have been mostly stylistic.<\/p>\n
Mr. Stubb, a former prime minister who had the most votes in the first round, has played up his security credentials.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI\u2019m as hawkish as the best of them, there\u2019s no question about that,\u201d he told The New York Times.<\/p>\n
He said countering Russia had become more difficult in an era of hybrid warfare. There has been a surge in cyberattacks, some of which Russian hackers have claimed responsibility for.<\/p>\n