In an interview with Reuters on Thursday, Finnish presidential frontrunner Alexander Stubb said NATO should become "more European" and that his country would remain an important partner for the United States whether or not Donald Trump is re-elected.

Stubb, 55, leads opinion polls before Finland's Jan. 28 presidential election, which precedes presidential elections this year in neighboring Russia and the United States. The former prime minister hopes to succeed Sauli Niinisto, who is retiring at 75 after two six-year terms, having been nicknamed "the Putin whisperer" for his role in keeping lines open with Russia's leader before the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Helsinki's relations with Moscow deteriorated after the invasion and sank further when Finland, in a historic break with tradition prompted by the invasion, joined NATO last April. Stubb signaled clearly that he would lean towards the West if elected president and said it was "very important that we in Europe take care of our own defence."

"So in that sense, I'm very much along the lines of the current Finnish president, Sauli Niinisto, who said that we need a more European NATO," he told Reuters.

"I think the Americans will not leave us alone (on our own), but it's always useful to be prepared in the situation whereby we have to take more responsibility for our own defence," continued Stubb.

According to Politico, nearly 1,000 migrants aided by Russia and not in possession of Finnish visas had presented themselves at the Finnish border in November 2022 - not an overwhelming figure, to be sure, but an unacceptable effort by Russia to cause commotion and uncertainty. In response, Finland quickly closed most of its border crossings, leaving only the northernmost one in the Arctic open. But Russia was undeterred and retaliated by bringing migrants there. So, the Finnish government closed this crossing too for roughly two weeks.

That seemed to do the trick; with the border closed, the migrant arrivals stopped. However, when Finland reopened a pair of crossings in December, asylum seekers resurfaced.

"We're a liberal democracy and we said, we'll open the crossings on December 14. So, the Russians just waited until we opened them," retired Major General Pekka Toveri, a former Finnish military intelligence chief and recently elected member of the Finnish parliament, told Politico.

"But the border agreement we have with Russia says a border closure must have 24 hours' notice. 24 hours is a long time. You can push a lot of people across the border," he said.

Stubb, a member of the centre-right National Coalition Party has topped most opinion polls in recent months against his main opponent, liberal Green Party member, Pekka Haavisto.

A second round run-off will be held on Feb. 11 if no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote.