Finland, Sweden brush off Moscow's warning

Helsinki: Finland and Sweden have brushed off warnings from neighbouring Russia that their possible joining of NATO would trigger serious military-political consequences from Moscow for the two countries.

A statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry Friday voiced concern about what it described as efforts by the United States and some of its allies to drag Finland and Sweden into NATO and warned that Moscow would be forced to take retaliatory measures if they join the alliance.

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said Saturday that we've heard this before.

We don't think that it calls for a military threat, Haavisto said in an interview with the Finnish public broadcaster YLE.

Should Finland be NATO's external border, it rather means that Russia would certainly take that into account in

its own defense planning. I don't see anything new as such in the statement delivered by

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, Haavisto said.