Brussels, April 5, (dpa/GNA) – Finland’s flag flies over NATO headquarters in Brussels, after the Nordic country became the 31st member of the defensive alliance on Tuesday in a radical overhaul of Western security after the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“A new era begins,” Finnish President Sauli Niinistö said, declaring that his country’s history of non-military alignment had come to an end.
Article 5 of the NATO treaty, a powerful collective security guarantee, now applies to Finland. An attack on one member of the alliance is an attack on all allies.
The decision ends Finland’s decades-long neutral status amid perceived security risks due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Nordic country shares a 1,340-kilometre-long border with Russia.
Finland overcame opposition from Turkey to join the alliance in what NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hailed as a “historic day.”
With his invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin “wanted to slam NATO’s door shut,” Stoltenberg said.
“Today, we show the world that he failed, that aggression and intimidation do not work,” he said.
NATO raised the Finnish flag alphabetically between the flags of Estonia and France in an outdoor ceremony as the Finnish national anthem was played.
Finland then participated for the first time in a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting as a full-fledged member.
Finland made the decision to join NATO under outgoing Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin. Marin tweeted that Finland was united “throughout this historic process.”
Finland applied together with Sweden for NATO membership in May 2022 in the aftermath of Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine, but its application got tangled up in Ankara’s opposition to Sweden’s entry.
All NATO members must unanimously agree to admit new members. After months of talks brokered by the alliance, Turkey eventually relented and voted last week to admit Finland into NATO.
The alliance completed the final formalities to admit Finland in an exchange between United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto at NATO headquarters.
Moscow reacted with fury. “The expansion of NATO is an attack on our security and Russia’s national interests,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Interfax news agency on Tuesday.
Russia would be forced to take countermeasures accordingly, he said.
Peskov rejected the thesis that Finland’s NATO accession was tantamount to Ukraine’s accession to the group, which Russia has feared.
“The situation with Finland is fundamentally different from the situation with Ukraine,” Peskov said.
Finland had never been “anti-Russia” and had not had a dispute with Moscow. “The situation in Ukraine is exactly the opposite and potentially much more dangerous,” he said.
Blinken said the Russian invasion of Ukraine brought about Finland’s entry to NATO, something Russian President Vladimir Putin had tried to prevent, in comments before the ceremony.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Finland’s entry to NATO shows the need for the alliance to “revise all strategies,” in a push for his own country’s future membership.
Congratulating Finland on its accession, Kuleba said the solution to ensuring the security of the alliance was the “eventual membership of Ukraine in NATO.”
Sweden’s membership is still pending Turkish ratification due to a number of sticking points, among them, Ankara’s concerns over what it says is a lack of cooperation in fighting terrorism.
Among other things, Turkey continues to block Swedish accession on the grounds that Sweden refuses to extradite 120 people viewed by Ankara as terrorists.
Hungary, like Turkey, has also not yet ratified Sweden’s NATO membership. In a government statement, Hungary cited “an ample amount of grievances” with Sweden over EU budget funds, among other things.
In what he described as Finland’s first act as a member of NATO, Haavisto gave his country’s ratification papers of Sweden’s NATO membership to Blinken.
GNA