Finnish confidence in the security guarantees of the NATO alliance, which their country joined two years ago, has weakened significantly with the return of Donald Trump as US president, a survey has shown.
Finland, which shares a 1,340-kilometer (800-mile) border with Russia, joined the US-led alliance in April 2023, ending decades of non-alignment.
Only 32% of those surveyed believe that NATO's security guarantees are such a strong deterrent that no one would dare to use military force against a member state, according to a survey by the Finnish Business and Policy Forum.
This is a drop of 21 percentage points from autumn 2023, when the same question was asked in a Forum survey.
"Confidence in NATO's security guarantees is no longer as unequivocal as it was before. Behind this change lies the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States," the survey concludes.
Sami Metelinen, managing editor of the Finnish Business and Policy Forum, said in a press release that Trump's statements that NATO countries that do not spend enough on defense may not necessarily be defended "have not gone unnoticed by Finns."
A majority of 66 percent of Finns still view Finland's membership as a positive thing, but that is five percentage points less than in a previous survey published in November and the lowest level since May 2022, when the country applied for membership after Russia's invasion of Ukraine. I AFP, BGNES
The survey also showed that 53 percent do not believe that membership guarantees that other countries "will ultimately help Finland in a real crisis."
The Finnish Business and Policy Forum said 2,070 people aged 18 to 79 took part in the survey, which was conducted in March. | BGNES