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What can be a potential solution?
- Among the scenarios that have been seen as potentially workable is the “Finlandization” of Ukraine, something that France’s President Emmanuel Macron was said to have suggested as “one of the models on the table” although he denied it later amid rising tensions.
What can be a potential solution?
What can be a potential solution?
Soviet-Finnish Treaty
What is Finlandization?
- Finlandization refers to the policy of strict neutrality between Moscow and the West that Finland followed during the decades of the Cold War.
- The principle of neutrality was rooted in the Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance that Finland signed with the USSR in April 1948.
Soviet-Finnish Treaty
- The Agreement of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance of 1948, also known as the YYA Treaty was the basis for Finno–Soviet relations from 1948 to 1992. It was the main instrument in implementing the Finnish policy called Paasikivi–Kekkonen doctrine.
- Under the treaty, which was signed on 6 April 1948, the Soviets sought to deter Western or Allied Powers from attacking the Soviet Union through Finnish territory, and the Finns sought to increase Finland’s political independence from the Soviet Union.
- It thus ensured Finland’s survival as a liberal democracy in close proximity to strategic Soviet regions.
Soviet-Finnish Treaty
- Why Finland agreed?
- It was the beginning of Coldwar & the world had seen a devastating WWII.
- From the perspective of Finland its capital Helsinki which is situated just across the Gulf of Finland from St Petersburg (Leningrad – Earlier Capital of USSR), the treaty protected it from being attacked or incorporated into the USSR like the Baltic and eastern European states.
Soviet-Finnish Treaty
- Why Finland agreed?
- The treaty allowed the Finland to pursue the path of democracy and capitalism while staying out of the conflict between the great powers.
- Finland did not participate in the Marshall Plan, the post-War European recovery programme which promoted the idea of shared interests and cooperation between the US and Europe. Finland took neutral positions on matters on which the Soviet Union and the West disagreed. It stayed aloof from NATO or Warsaw pact.
Was it just Finland?
- Soviet Union had similar agreements with many nations that were not directly allied with it, such as Free France in 1943, North Korea in 1961, India in 1971 and Vietnam since 1978.
Is it feasible still?
- The exercise of the “Finland” option at this stage is quite complicated with Russia having already reduced significant parts of Ukraine to rubble.
- Ironically, Finland itself is planning to join NATO.
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