Finland will now have a fence of more than 130 kilometers on the border with its large neighbor Russia. All parties represented in parliament have expressed their support for this, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Tuesday evening after a meeting of party leaders in Helsinki.
“It’s about making sure the border is properly controlled,” the prime minister told Yle. “And that we can exert preventive influence on the situations that could arise at the border.” The costs are estimated by the border guard at “hundreds of millions of euros”.
According to a proposal from the Finnish Border Guard, the fence should be 130 to 260 kilometers long. The border between the two states is more than 1,300 kilometers long.
The cabinet will now work out proposals for a pilot project, Marin announced after the deliberation. Parliament is expected to vote on this later this year. The final decision is then scheduled for next year.
Opposition criticizes cost and construction time
Construction is expected to take three to four years. The opposition has criticized the cost and duration of construction. Like Sweden, Finland wants to join NATO after decades of refusal because of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The final decision on admission is still pending.
Source: Krone
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