Finland joins declaration on 2-state solution, weighs recognizing Palestinian state

Nordic nation endorses platform of UN confab led by France and Saudi Arabia earlier this summer, but right-wing coalition government split on Palestinian statehood

Finland is joining a declaration calling for the implementation of a two-state solution to Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians, the Nordic country said in a statement on Friday.

The declaration is a product of an international conference at the United Nations in July, hosted by Saudi Arabia and France, about the conflict. The United States and Israel boycotted the event.

“The process led by France and Saudi Arabia is the most significant international effort in years to create the conditions for a two-state solution,” Finland’s foreign minister Elina Valtonen said on X.

The first step outlined in the declaration is to end the nearly two-year-old war between Israel and the Hamas terror group in the Gaza Strip.

Saudi Arabia and France have called on countries at the United Nations to support the declaration that outlines “tangible, timebound and irreversible steps” toward implementing a two-state solution.

Finland’s right-wing coalition government is split on the question of recognizing Palestinian statehood, with the far-right Finns Party and the Christian Democrats both opposed.

Finland’s Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen speaks to the media upon her arrival for the NATO summit of heads of state and government in The Hague on June 25, 2025. (Kin Cheung / POOL / AFP)

“Finland is committed to recognizing the state of Palestine at some point in the future,” Valtonen told reporters, without elaborating about a possible date.

Several other European nations, such as Spain and Norway, have announced recognition of a Palestinian state since the outbreak of the Gaza war, sparked by the devastating Hamas onslaught on October 7, 2023.

Israel and its ally the US have condemned states’ recognition of Palestinian statehood, arguing that to take the step now is to reward Hamas for its October 7 attack, and to encourage further terrorism in the future.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa (2L), conference co-chair Saudia Arabia’s Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud (3L), UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres (C), and conference co-chair French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot (2R) stand for a group photo with high level ministers during the United Nations conference on a two state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, at UN headquarters on July 28, 2025, in New York City. (Photo by CHARLY TRIBALLEAU / AFP)

Additionally, according to various Hebrew media reports, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is considering the possibility of applying Israeli sovereignty to parts of the West Bank as a response to the recognitions.

Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich on Wednesday unveiled a proposal for Israel to annex 82 percent of the West Bank, in the most concrete expression thus far of growing momentum in Netanyahu’s right-wing government to apply Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank in response to a range of Western countries’ plans to recognize a Palestinian state.

Smotrich and other longtime proponents of Israel annexing the territory say their moment has come, despite international warnings against such a move.