Finland set to join NATO, doubling US-led alliance’s land border with Russia

Finland is set to formally become a member of the NATO military alliance on Tuesday in a historic shift that will end the country's years of “military non-alignment" and double the US-led alliance's land border with Russia.

The Nordic country's blue and white flag will be raised outside NATO’s Brussels headquarters in a ceremony that will see the participation of Finland’s president, foreign and defense ministers, among other high-profile political and military figures of the alliance.

Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto will hand over the accession papers to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the keeper of NATO's founding treaty.

Speaking on Monday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said the accession makes Finland "safer and our alliance stronger.” 

“We will raise the Finnish flag for the first time here at the NATO headquarters,” he remarked. “It will be a good day for Finland’s security, for Nordic security, and for NATO as a whole.”

The accession marks the end of a process that began last May when Finland and neighboring Sweden abandoned their longstanding policies of neutrality and nonalignment after Russia’s military operation in Ukraine.

Finland completed the fastest membership process in NATO's recent history after Hungary and Turkey ratified the Nordic country’s accession bid last week. Sweden’s accession process, however, is stalled as it has not secured the support of Hungary and Turkey.

Turkish parliament clears last hurdle in Finland’s NATO membership

Turkey’s parliament on Thursday approved a bill that allows Finland to join the NATO military alliance, clearing the last major hurdle for Helsinki to join the US-led alliance as the year-long war in Ukraine rages on.

Ankara has cited Stockholm’s refusal to extradite the “terrorists” affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK. Hungary has accused Swedish officials of “using their political influence to harm Hungarian interests” and lambasting the country’s “crumbling throne of moral superiority.”

Stoltenberg said Sweden "will also be safer as a result" of Finland's membership, hoping that Stockholm would be able to join NATO soon.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, the NATO chief noted, “went to war against Ukraine with the clear aim to get less NATO...he is getting the exact opposite, he is getting more NATO presence in the eastern part of the alliance, and he is getting two new members with Finland and Sweden."

Finland’s NATO accessions will more than double the size of the US-led alliance’s border with Russia and bolster its presence around the Baltic Sea.

Russia’s deputy foreign minister Minister Alexander Grushko responded to the news of Finland’s NATO accession by saying that his country will bolster its defenses near the Finnish border.

"In the event of the deployment of forces and resources of other NATO members on the territory of Finland, we will take additional steps to reliably ensure Russia's military security," he was quoted as saying by state news agency RIA Novosti.

Moscow insisted in March that it was not a threat to the two Nordic countries and has no "dispute" with them. It, however, sees NATO expansion as an "existential" threat to the country's security.

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