Finland is now part of NATO. The Scandinavians are the 31st member of the military confederation. Meanwhile, Russia threatens to station nuclear weapons near the Finnish border.
NATO is growing to 31 member states. Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto presented his country’s accession certificate in Brussels on Tuesday, completing the admission process. Finnish President Sauli Niinistö described his country’s entry into NATO as the beginning of a new era. The Finnish head of state declared on Tuesday, immediately after the completion of accession, that his country’s period of military freedom from alliances had come to an end.
In addition, the national flag of Finland will be hoisted symbolically in front of NATO headquarters for the first time. This will increase the border between the defense alliance and Russia to more than 2,000 kilometers.
With their entry into the Confederation of States, the Scandinavians finally severed their ties with Russia. Finland has managed a difficult balancing act between East and West for decades: given its extremely long border with Russia, the country tried to be on good terms with the giant empire to the east. At the same time, however, it was building ever closer ties with the West. Finland joined the EU in 1995 and was the only Nordic country to adopt the euro later.
The record-breaking recording has been accompanied by Russian threatening gestures in recent months. The Russian Foreign Ministry has criticized that a neighboring country joining NATO would seriously damage Russian-Finnish relations. “Russia will be forced to respond appropriately – in military-technical and other terms – to take into account threats to its national security,” the ministry said in a May statement.
Medvedev threatens to station nuclear weapons
In addition, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of the National Security Council and former president of Russia, has threatened to station nuclear weapons in Russia’s Baltic Sea region. However, experts consider it “extremely” unlikely that Russia will actually react violently to accession.
Neo-NATO member Finland has not asked for NATO troops to be stationed on its territory, according to the military alliance. “So far there has been no such request,” Admiral Rob Bauer, chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, told AFP on Monday. But of course, such a request may come in the future, “and then we have to deal with it,” Bauer added.
According to Stoltenberg, NATO will do everything possible to ensure that Sweden, after Finland, quickly becomes a full member of the transatlantic alliance. “I am confident that will happen,” the NATO chief said at the start of the meeting in Brussels. Turkey and Hungary have not yet ratified Sweden’s accession to NATO.
Source: Krone
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