Ahead of the annual NATO Summit scheduled to take place in July in Vilnius, on Tuesday (April 4, 2023) Finland flag be hoisted outside NATO Headquarters as it becomes the 31st member of the Western Alliance.
This was announced by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg following a major meeting in Brussels, where Turkey was the last country to have ratified Finland’s membership. And said that the official texts will be handed over to the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Finland’s foreign minister will formally hand over the accession papers of the US Secretary of State as the US is the keeper of NATO’s founding treaty.
President of Finland Sauli Niinisto is expected to speak at the event.
According to reports, the Secretary General of NATO Stoltenberg told the media persons that for the first time the flag of Finland will be hoisted and it will be good for Nordic security as well as the security of Finland and NATO as a whole. Also, Sweden will also be safer, he added.
The Russia-Ukraine war forced countries like Sweden and Finland to drop their decades of non-alignment and decided to join the protective umbrella of NATO.
Which countries had opposed?
Two countries – Hungary and Turkey opposed Finland’s membership and held up Helsinki’s bid for months. Now that Finland’s membership is completed, Sweden’s bid is still held up because of these two countries. Reports indicate that last week Turkey’s parliament had cast its approval vote for Finland to join the West led alliance.
The process of Finland becoming a member was the fastest ever as the entire procedure was completed in just one year. Both Sweden and Finland had applied for the membership last May after being formally invited to join the grouping, however Turkey and Hungary had been stalling the process of ratifying their membership.
Why did Turkey object?
As far as Turkey is concerned it is one of the powerful members of NATO and it has the second-largest military after the US in the bloc. And strategically too it is located at the southeastern flank of the West led alliance. Concerns were raised by Ankara about Sweden and Finland’s support of Kurdish groups and also limitations on arms exports. Despite the two countries making policy changes, Turkey which has been part of NATO since 1952, decided to vote for Finland and is holding back Sweden.
The Hungarian Parliament too has ratified Finland’s membership but has decided to hold back on Sweden.
Russia’s reaction
Following the announcement of Finland becoming a member of NATO Russia has said that it will strengthen its military capacity. And RIA, a Russian news agency quoting Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko, said that Russia will strengthen military capacity in the west and northwest.