Finland has joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) security alliance as the 31st member, and its flag will shortly be raised at the alliance’s headquarters. The Finnish foreign minister presented the accession document to the Secretary of State of the United States, who proclaimed Finland a member.
The accession of Finland is a setback for Russia’s Vladimir Putin, who had frequently complained about Nato’s expansion prior to his full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s border with NATO member nations has now doubled in length.
Finland and Russia share a 1,340-kilometer (832-mile) eastern border, and Finland and Sweden officially applied to join Nato last May as a result of Russia’s war. Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, warned that Russia would be “watching closely” what happened in Finland, calling Nato’s expansion a “violation of our security and national interests.”
Finland and Sweden had earlier pursued non-alignment policies. However, following the invasion of Ukraine, they chose the protection of Nato’s Article Five, which states that an assault on one member is an attack on all.
In practice, this means that if Finland is invaded or attacked, all NATO members, including the United States, will rush to its aid. The Russian invasion prompted a surge in Finnish popular support for NATO membership, with 80% in favor.
“This will make Finland safer and Nato stronger,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters on Tuesday.
“President Putin had a declared goal of the invasion of Ukraine to get less NATO along its borders and no more membership in Europe, he’s getting exactly the opposite.”
According to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, he is “tempted to say this is maybe the one thing we can thank Mr Putin for”.
Sweden’s application to join NATO is currently stalled, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing Stockholm of embracing Kurdish militants and permitting them to march in the streets. Also, Hungary has yet to accept Sweden’s membership.
In 1949, there were 12 founding members of NATO – Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States. Since then, 19 more countries have joined the Alliance: Greece and Türkiye (1952); Germany (1955); Spain (1982); Czechia, Hungary and Poland (1999); Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia (2004); Albania and Croatia (2009); Montenegro (2017); North Macedonia (2020); and Finland (2023).
