On Tuesday, Finland will become the 31st member of NATO, according to the Western military alliance’s secretary general.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia, with whom Finland shares a lengthy border, prompted the application.
Turkey had delayed the application, citing Finland’s support for “terrorists” as the reason.
In May of last year, Sweden also applied to join NATO, but Turkey is obstructing it for similar reasons.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey has accused Sweden of embracing Kurdish militants and permitting them to demonstrate in Stockholm.
Any expansion of NATO requires the support of all of its members.
“The Finnish flag will be raised for the first time at the NATO headquarters. It will be a positive day for the security of Finland, the Nordic countries, and NATO as a whole, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in Brussels.
“This will also make Sweden safer,” he said.
The accession of Finland to NATO is one of the most significant events in recent NATO history.
In response to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Finland, a country with a 1,340km (832 miles) border with Russia and one of the most potent artillery arsenals in Western Europe, decided to abandon its neutrality and join the alliance.
In applying to join NATO, Sweden also abandoned a longstanding commitment to neutrality, but unlike its neighbor, it does not share a border with Russia.
An attack on one NATO member is an attack on all, as collective defence is one of its founding concepts.
For Russian President Vladimir Putin, Finland’s accession to the EU represents a significant strategic setback.
Last year, he sent his army into Ukraine with the hope that it would impede NATO’s expansion and diminish Western collectivism. It has had the opposite effect.
In response to Mr. Stoltenberg’s announcement, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko stated, “We will take additional steps to ensure Russia’s military security if the forces and resources of other NATO members are deployed in Finland.” He did not elaborate.
Finland will become NATO’s seventh Baltic Sea member, further cutting Russia off from St. Petersburg and Kaliningrad.
The invasion of Ukraine by Russia has had a profound effect on Finnish public opinion. In the spring of last year, the proportion of Finns who support NATO membership increased from a meager one-third to nearly eighty percent.
