Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP) held a cross-party meeting with party leaders on Tuesday to update them about the peace process in Ukraine as well as European security matters.
After the meeting, Orpo said that Finland would continue to promote peace in all phases of the peace negotiations.
That was the same opinion reached on Monday at a meeting of the Ministerial Committee on Foreign and Security Policy (TP-UTVA) and President Alexander Stubb.
"The goal cannot be any other result [from the peace negotiations] than for Ukraine to be a sovereign country that can apply for membership in the EU and Nato, if it wishes to do so," Orpo said on Tuesday evening.
However, Russia has already stipulated that a peace agreement hinged on Ukraine not joining Nato.
Orpo said that Europe should be involved in the peace negotiations. He also said Nato's defence should not be weakened as a result of an eventual peace agreement.
According to Orpo, the meeting with party leaders was necessary, and that the discussion they had was good. He added that the parties were on the same page about the situation and thanked the party leaders for that.
"Russia is, and will be, a long-term and serious security threat to Europe," Orpo said, adding that even achieving peace in Ukraine would not change this situation.
Surprising step
Ahead of the meeting, Orpo said the gathering was meant to update MPs about the situation. He announced the meeting last week during Parliamentary question hour.
"A common national view and consensus on issues related to national security and defense means everything. As a government, we want to foster this unity, so we're informing all parliamentary parties and engaging in discussions with them across government-opposition boundaries — in this situation, it makes sense to do so," Orpo said on Tuesday before the meeting.
There has been recemt discussion about sending European peacekeepers to Ukraine. According to Orpo, the government is in the process of deciding whether Finland would do so.
The possibility of an end to Russia's war in Ukraine took a surprising step forward last week, when it was announced that US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin were planning to meet soon.
US and Russian diplomats met in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday without a representative from Ukraine present.
European leaders were startled as they learned they were excluded from the peace negotiations, as some EU heads of state met in Paris for an emergency meeting on Monday.
Meanwhile, Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard also called a meeting on Tuesday with lawmakers to discuss the situation in Ukraine.