Finland has become the 31st member of the North Atlantic Alliance after a record-breaking completion of ratification of entry into the defense alliance.
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto signed a document on Finland’s entry into the North Atlantic Alliance. The ceremony took place in front of cameras at NATO Headquarters in Brussels. Today NATO officially includes 31 countries, 32 – Sweden, is also on the way. No other country has entered the Alliance so quickly after the announcement of the decision to join NATO.
historical moment
Finland’s entry into NATO marked the end of a period of Finnish neutrality, which was a non-bloc state at all times after gaining independence in 1917 and subject to armed aggression by the USSR at the start of World War II.
Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine prompted the Finns to seek security under the auspices of the NATO Collective Defense Agreement. Finnish public opinion has changed radically since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Almost overnight last spring, support for NATO membership jumped from a third of Finns to nearly 80%.
Despite the fact that Turkey blocked Finland’s accession for a long time, the ratification of Finnish accession to NATO became the fastest in history against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine and lasted less than a year.
Sweden has experienced a similar shift in defense thinking, but the Scandinavian country’s bid is being held back by NATO members Turkey and Hungary.
Russian paper
Ascent of Finland approx NATO’s border with Russia is twice as long.
On Monday, Moscow said it would strengthen its military capabilities in the western and northwestern regions in response to Finland joining NATO.
“One of the most important signals of President Putin … is that he is against any further expansion of NATO,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. “He wants NATO to be smaller. Now President Putin is getting more NATO on his borders.”
The land border between Finland and Russia is more than 1300 km. Moreover, it is precisely in the areas bordering Finland that the strategic bases of Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles and the bases of the Northern Fleet are concentrated.
In addition, the supply of these bases is carried out by a railway line and a highway, which branches off just north of Ladoga – which gives the allied forces a theoretical opportunity to cut off this supply line anywhere within half a thousand. kilometer
Notably, in January 2022, Moscow demanded that NATO abandon its eastern expansion, not accept former Soviet countries, including Ukraine, into the alliance, reject any military cooperation with them, and also return troops NATO in positions in 1997, when the alliance has not yet joined the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Baltics. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had the opposite effect.
Source: korrespondent
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