Finland's President Alexander Stubb defended his country's decision to buy arms from Israel despite the war in Gaza, saying it had no link to Finland's unwillingness to recognize an independent Palestinian state at the present time. Finland is acquiring a ground based, high altitude, missile defense system called David's Sling from Israel. Helsinki considers the system a high priority for its own defense due to neighboring Russia's ongoing missile attacks on civilian and military targets in Ukraine. Stubb, who took office in March, has defined his and Finland's new foreign policy stance as "values-based realism," which he has said was about "achieving things in the world as it is," instead of "promoting only the world how I want to see it." In an interview with Reuters on Tuesday, Stubb said the time was not right to recognize a Palestinian state, even though its Nordic neighbors, Sweden, Iceland, and most recently Norway, have done so.