(Adds government comment, public NATO support)
HELSINKI, April 29 (Reuters) - If Finland joined NATO it
would lead to a serious crisis with neighbouring Russia, a
report commissioned by the Finnish government said on Friday.
Membership of the military alliance would strengthen
Finland's security but trigger a harsh reaction from the
Kremlin, affecting trade between the countries, according to the
report prepared for Prime Minister Juha Sipila's centre-right
government.
Militarily-neutral Finland shares a 1,340 km-long border and
difficult history with Russia, its former ruler.
The report gave no direct recommendation on whether Finland
should seek membership, but said a joint Finnish-Swedish
application would be a better strategic option than either
Nordic country joining the alliance alone.
"This is a question of grand strategy," Finnish Prime
Minister Sipila told reporters on Friday.
"Small nations do not often change their basic foreign
policy guidelines," he said, adding that leeway was needed in
case the security situation changed.
Only 22 percent of Finns support joining NATO, while 55
percent are opposed, a recent poll by public broadcaster YLE
showed.
Finnish membership of NATO would double the length of the
border between the alliance and Russia and increase the NATO
presence in the Baltic Sea.
But without Sweden, Finland would be an isolated outpost
which NATO would have difficulty defending, the report said.
Sipila said the governments of Finland and Sweden had
promised not to "surprise each other" on the issue.
Nordic countries have stepped up military cooperation since
Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014.
This month two Russian warplanes flew simulated attack
passes near a U.S. destroyer in international waters in the
Baltic, according to the U.S. military.
On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an
interview that if Sweden joined NATO, Moscow would take
"necessary military-technical measures".
Sweden's government has said it will not join the alliance,
but four opposition parties want membership.
Finland won independence during Russia's revolution of 1917
but nearly lost it fighting the Soviet Union in World War Two.
It kept close economic and political ties with the West
during the Cold War but avoided confrontation with Moscow.
(Reporting by Tuomas Forsell and Jussi Rosendahl; Additional
reporting by Simon Johnson in Stockholm; Editing by Andrew
Roche)
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