in March 2012 Niinistö was the NCP candidate for a second time in the
2012 presidential election. With 37.0% of the vote, he won the election's first round and faced off against Haavisto of the Green League in the decisive second round. He carried the second round with around 62.6% against Haavisto's 37.4%. Niinistö's margin of victory was larger than that of any previous directly elected president. He won a majority in 14 of 15 electoral districts. Niinistö's election budget was circa 1.2 million euros. After becoming the President, Niinistö pledged to establish a special task force aiming at preventing alienation among the country's youth and expressed concern about the problems of sparsely populated rural areas. Niinistö stressed the significance of mutual understanding with the cabinet and Parliament. His acceptance speech thanked those who backed him in the campaign and those who disagreed with him. Niinistö said that the differing views expressed should be taken into consideration. In May 2017, Niinistö announced that he would seek re-election in the
2018 presidential election, running as an
independent candidate. His candidacy was soon supported by the
National Coalition Party and
Christian Democrats. In the election, Niinistö received 62.7% of the votes, becoming the first president in Finland to win the first round of an election by popular vote. By 2022, Niinistö was estimated to have an approval rating of 92 percent, but rejected efforts by a grassroots movement to allow him to run for a third term.
Foreign policy As President, Niinistö visited Russia and met with Russian President
Vladimir Putin in February 2013 to promote
bilateral trade (e.g. Shell, Cargotec, YIT). He discussed
ice hockey and business, but not
human rights issues or the selling of Russian military equipment to
Syria and its transport through Finland. Niinistö's contacts with the Russian leader have led him to be dubbed as the "Putin whisperer" by some commentators. At the same time as the sanctions against Russia, mainly caused by the
Russian invasion in Crimea and eastern Ukraine, Niinistö said that the focus should be on easing tensions and increasing understanding between Europe and Russia. He stated that Finland should serve as a broker between Russia and Europe. He also stated that "Russia understands that the conflict in Ukraine has generated debate in Finland over this country's own security policy. It's important that President Putin understands Finland's position on NATO membership in this debate. Finland accepts that Russia is working to find a solution to the acute conflict in Ukraine, but it needs to do more." The foreign minister of Russia,
Sergey Lavrov, used a statement of Niinistö in his arguments about future choices for the next Prime Minister of Finland, saying, "'Does Northern Europe need this? How will Russia react?' President Niinistö asked these questions with the subtext. He knows that the answer is negative: nobody needs this"; Lavrov added "President Niinistö realizes that what happened in Ukraine is impossible in Finland." In his 2015 New Year's Speech, Niinistö stated: "We condemned Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea as soon as it happened and then condemned Russia's actions in eastern Ukraine. We have done this in the EU context but have also made this clear in our direct contacts with Russia. We condemn any illegal occupations, illegal use of force or attempts to limit the sovereignty of independent nations. Such actions never achieve anything but danger and increased tension. While power may have once grown out of the barrel of a gun, these days it leads to nothing but chaos." In October 2015, Niinistö expressed its support for
Turkey's accession negotiations with the
European Union and urged Turkey to make swift progress on the rule of law, human rights, and reforms. Niinistö met with Iranian Supreme Leader
Ali Khamenei on 26 October 2016 in Tehran,
Iran. He also met Iranian President
Hassan Rouhani. They discussed closer economic cooperation,
human rights in Iran, the situation in the Middle East and the threat of
terrorism. Niinistö said: "Iran was one of the first countries to recognise Finland's independence, and now our countries will further deepen their cooperation." In April 2017, Niinistö openly supported the
One-China policy. In 2018, Niinistö said during his re-election campaign that he would block arms sales to the
United Arab Emirates and
Saudi Arabia, due to their involvement in the
Saudi Arabian–led intervention in Yemen. On 16 July 2018, Niinistö officially hosted U.S. President
Donald Trump and Russian President Putin for
the US-Russia Summit in Helsinki. Niinistö was involved
73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York on 25 September 2018. President Niinistö spoke about Russia and
Baltic nations affairs at the UNGA 2018. , U.S. President
Donald Trump, First Lady of Finland
Jenni Haukio and First Lady of the United States
Melania Trump in
2018 Russia–United States Summit in July 2018 Niinistö visited
China on 13–14 January 2019 and met with
General Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Xi Jinping, they went through
common issues between Finland-China to raise friendship and partnership. Xi Jinping and Niinistö jointly launched the 2019 China-Finland Year of Winter Sports. in September 2019 in September 2021 In October 2019, Niinistö condemned
Turkey's military campaign in
Kurdish–controlled areas of northern
Syria. He said that two NATO member states are "quite involved" in Syria.
Russian invasion of Ukraine and accession of Finland to NATO ,
Sanna Marin, at a press conference announcing Finland's intent to apply for
NATO membership in May 2022 in June 2023 In an interview with
The Washington Post in January 2022, Niinistö stated that he could not speak to Putin's intentions regarding the frozen relations between Russia and the West, but cited what he described as Finnish "wisdom" on experiences in dealing with
Moscow. "Finns certainly learned the wisdom that a
Cossack, that means a Russian soldier, takes all that is loose. You have to be very, very, clear, where the fixed line is." When he was asked to shed light on his thoughts about Putin after the
Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Niinistö replied: "The masks have now been taken off, showing only the face of war." On 4 March 2022, Niinistö visited Washington, D.C., to meet President
Joe Biden and number of other US politicians and security personnel. The meetings were initiated by Niinistö's office earlier the same week. In a press conference with Finnish media, Niinistö said that in the meeting the presidents discussed the Russian invasion of Ukraine and its impact on
European and Finnish security. Furthermore, they agreed on deepening Finnish-US security co-operation and bilateral relations. On 12 May 2022, ten weeks after the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Niinistö and
prime minister Sanna Marin advocated in a joint statement for a '
NATO membership without delay'. Niinistö also made his last call with Putin that month, telling him that Finland's decision to join NATO was the Russian leader's "own doing." Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership on 18 May 2022. On the same day, Turkey formally blocked the start of accession negotiations for Finland and Sweden. On 19 May 2022, Niinistö made a statement regarding Finland's NATO membership, stating that they are ready to address Turkey's security concerns, are ready for dialogue, always take terrorism seriously and always condemn terrorism. On 21 May 2022, Turkish President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told Niinistö that "overlooking threatening terrorist organisations that pose a threat to a NATO member is not in the spirit of the alliance." On the same day, Niinistö, after a telephone conversation with Erdoğan, announced that they were ready for dialogue with
Turkey regarding Finland's membership in NATO and that they always condemned
terrorism. On 1 June 2022, Niinistö stated in a statement regarding Finland's NATO membership that Turkey could address its concerns about terrorism, that it was always open to dialogue and that they always condemned terrorism. On 8 June 2022, Niinistö said he was surprised by Turkey's
opposition to Finland's NATO membership. During Niinistö's presidency, neighbouring military cooperation ties between Finland and
Sweden were further strengthened, culminating in joint, rather than separate,
NATO accession bids initiated by both countries. Amid threats of a veto from the Turkish Government over
Sweden's accession, Niinistö stated that he was steadfastly committed to the application being joint and that it would mean that Finland would have to decline the invitation into NATO if Sweden's membership application was vetoed. Finland and Sweden signed a trilateral memorandum with Turkey at the
NATO summit held in
Madrid on 28 June 2022, to address Turkey's security concerns. On the same day, Turkey agreed to support the accession bids of Finland and Sweden. the Turkish government has announced that it will not approve Finland's accession to NATO unless the country extradites individuals allegedly linked to the
Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the
Gülen movement. During Niinistö's presidency, Finland became a member of NATO on 4 April 2023.
Pardons As President of Finland, Niinistö held the power of pardoning for individual criminal sentences and related sanctions. In 2019 and 2020, he did not pardon anyone, and pardoned on average only three people per year. In comparison, his predecessor
Tarja Halonen reached a figure of 20 pardons per year on average. Niinistö had explained that he was in good agreement with the policy of the
Supreme Court of Finland, which had always processed the case first before the President saw it. Niinistö supported the abolition of the presidential pardon in his presidential campaigns, calling the institution an outdated "royal tradition". == Post-presidency (2024–present) ==