’We should have listened’ to Poland about Russian energy: Finnish PM
Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin has said the European Union should have heeded warnings from Poland and the Baltic states against establishing close energy ties with Russia.
Finnish Prime Minister Sanna MarinPhoto: EPA/FRANCK ROBICHON
“Our Polish friends and our Baltic friends were right – they were saying all along that Russia thinks differently, that its logic is different than ours,” Marin said. „And we should have listened to them.”
She made the statement while speaking at the annual Slush start-up event in the Finnish capital Helsinki on Thursday.
It’s the second time in recent months that Marin has publicly made such a statement, news outlets reported.
In mid-September, while addressing the European Parliament, she said the European Union was paying a „heavy price” for its entrenched dependency on Russian fuels, while it “should have listened more carefully to the Baltic countries and Poland.”
Speaking at the Slush conference on Thursday, Marin said there was „another lesson to be learnt now” from the energy crisis in Europe caused by its dependence on Russian energy: „Europe currently seems to be too reliant on China” for modern technology.
„We have to make sure that we have the capabilities and the knowledge to build these technologies and not be dependent on China and other authoritarian countries that have a different logic than democratic countries have,” Marin said.
(mo/gs)
Source: PAP, tvn24.pl
