Finland to officially join NATO
A report was filed by the president on Sunday finalizing the official decision to join NATO.
On Sunday, Finland's president and the Ministerial Committee on Foreign and Security Policy completed a report on the country's NATO membership and decided that the country will seek to join the alliance, according to a statement from the Finnish government.
According to the statement, “In the meeting, the President and the Ministerial Committee agreed that Finland would apply for membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) after the Parliament has been heard."
The #Kremlin said on Saturday that #Russia's President Vladimir #Putin told his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto that it would be a mistake for #Finland to scrap its military neutrality.#NATO pic.twitter.com/Dhl4Z5pmHJ
— Al Mayadeen English (@MayadeenEnglish) May 15, 2022
Following the publishing of the statement, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanne Marin held a joint news conference in which they stated that the whole force of democracy was at work.
“The Parliament of Finland will receive the application for NATO membership” Niinisto stated.
The prime minister labeled the move "historic," and stressed that Finland, as a NATO member state, will be accountable for the alliance's overall security.
Read more: Finland aims for peace on borders with Russia: FM
The decision will be debated in parliament on Monday, with a vote scheduled for Tuesday. Earlier in the day, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto stated that Finland will most likely submit an application for membership to NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday.
Finland and Sweden have been expected to apply to join NATO and promised it would grant membership quickly, according to diplomats and officials.
During the one-year ratification of their membership, NATO allies will be ramping up troop presence in the Nordic region, in addition to holding military exercises and naval patrols in the Baltic Sea, possibly rotating US and British forces in Finland and Sweden, according to the sources.
Though Moscow opposes the alliance's expansion, it does not see the accession of Finland and Sweden into the bloc as an existential threat, Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov underlined. However, Russia will work on its Western flank to make it more sophisticated in terms of security in the face of NATO creeping in on its northern borders.
