NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg recalled that Finland’s accession to NATO was a reaction to how Russia acted, and not vice versa. Stoltenberg confirmed that Helsinki will officially join NATO on April 4.
Speaking at a briefing in Brussels on Monday, on the eve of the meeting of foreign ministers of the military-political bloc, Stoltenberg confirmed the information about Finland’s accession to NATO.
Tomorrow we will congratulate Finland as the 31st member of NATO, which will make Finland safer and our Alliance stronger. We will raise the Finnish flag for the first time here at NATO Headquarters, he said.
Finland will now participate in all Alliance meetings and activities as a full member.
We have seen a significant presence of Russian forces for many years, in particular in the north, close to the borders of Finland and Norway. This happened for many years on the Kola Peninsula, in the Arctic. We also saw that Russian President Putin used force against neighbors,” the Secretary General said.
Stoltenberg recalled that Moscow first attacked Georgia in 2008, then occupied the Ukrainian Crimea, and finally went to a full-scale war against Ukraine.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year prompted Finland and Sweden to decide to apply to join NATO. When President Putin said his goal of invading Ukraine was to guarantee “less NATO” at his borders. He wanted to force NATO to close its doors to prevent new countries from gaining membership. But I got a completely opposite result: more of our forces, higher readiness on the eastern flank of the Alliance and new member countries,” said the Secretary General.
Russia “will be forced” to take measures to “purchase threats to national security,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said on Finland’s NATO membership.
Concrete steps in defense construction on the northwestern borders of Russia will depend on the conditions for the integration of this country into the North Atlantic Alliance, including the deployment of NATO military infrastructure and strike weapons systems, the ministry said.
Source: Racurs
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