Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has said he sees no signs of change that would allow the Nordic country to reopen its border with Russia, at least in the near future.

"At the moment, I still don't see any chance of reopening the border," Mr. Orpo told the Finnish tabloid Iltalehti on August 3 when asked about the possibility of reopening checkpoints on the eastern border with Russia.

In the interview, Mr. Orpo said the conditions for Reopening the border with its giant neighbor could include assurances that Russia is willing to cooperate based on the previous model, in which both countries only let people with valid travel documents reach border checkpoints.

"If that leads to the same chaos as we saw at the beginning of the year, when the border crossing was temporarily opened, then that must not happen," the Finnish prime minister added.

Finnish Border Guard officers check the documents of people arriving at the Salla checkpoint in Laplan, Arctic Finland, November 2023. Photo: Al Jazeera

The head of government in Helsinki expressed satisfaction that the Finnish parliament last month passed new border security laws that allow authorities to restrict the acceptance of international protection applications under certain conditions.

After a fierce debate, the law – which requires an absolute majority to pass on an emergency basis – finally received enough support from the opposition and the ruling party to pass on July 12, just before Finnish lawmakers began their summer break.

Finland is urging the European Commission (EC) to draft and publish a bill to tackle instrumentalised immigration across the EU, Mr Orpo said.

Poland, for example, has been dealing with what it considers a form of hybrid war on its border with Belarus since 2021, when large numbers of migrants began attempting to cross illegally.

Finland is the NATO member state with the longest land border with Russia, at 1,340 km – as long as the borders with Russia of all other NATO member states combined. Accordingly, there are 8 border crossings between the two countries.

In April, the Finnish government closed its border with Russia indefinitely to combat the influx of migrants. The Finnish Border Guard has opened investigations into about two dozen cases involving the illegal entry of people into Finland via the Russian border.

At the time, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Finland's decision to close its borders would create a new dividing line in Europe and Moscow would certainly react.

Minh Duc (According to YLE, News.Az, European Pravda)