Orpo: No prospect of reopening the border | Yle News

In an interview with Iltalehti, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo (NCP) said he does not think Russia will make any changes that would open its eastern borders.

Open the image viewer

Prime Minister Petri Orpo (NCP) does not see any signs of a change in Russian behavior that would lead to a reopening of the border between the two countries, at least in the near future.

Asked about the possibility of reopening the eastern border crossing point, he told tabloid Iltalehti: “At the moment, I still don’t see any chance of reopening it.”

In the interview, Orpo expressed doubt that Moscow would not use the border to pursue its own interests.

“We need to ensure that Russia is willing to cooperate under the previous model, where both countries ensured that only people with valid travel documents arrived at the border post,” the prime minister said.

“If this leads to the kind of chaos we saw when border crossings were temporarily opened at the beginning of the year, then we cannot allow that to happen,” Orpo added.

The Prime Minister expressed satisfaction with last month’s parliament Officially recognized A new border security law allows authorities to limit the acceptance of international protection applications under certain conditions.

After heated debate, the bill, which required an absolute majority to pass urgently, eventually received enough support from the government and the opposition and was passed on July 12 (before MPs began their summer recess).

Finland seeks EU-wide legislation

Orpo said Finland is urging the new European Commission to come up with legislation to address so-called instrumentalized migration across the EU.

Since 2021, Poland has allegedly been dealing with a kind of hybrid war on its border with Belarus, which is backed by Moscow, as a large number of migrants began trying to cross the border illegally.

Both Warsaw and the European Union say Belarus and its ally Russia are creating the crisis by airlifting migrants from the Middle East and Africa.

Poland’s parliament passed a law on Friday making it easier for security services to use weapons against migrants at the Belarus border, Reuters reported, in legislation that has public support but critics say violates human rights.