Finn-tastic moment after nod from NATO
BRUSSELS: Finland’s blueand-white Nordic cross flag was hoisted outside NATO headquarters on Tuesday as it became the alliance’s 31st member, in a historic realignment of Europe’s defences spurred by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
NATO leaders will now turn up the pressure on their awkward allies Hungary and Turkey to lift their block on Sweden joining.
Helsinki’s strategic shift – which ended decades of military non-alignment – has doubled the length of the Us-led alliance’s land border with Russia and drew an angry warning of “countermeasures” from the Kremlin.
Finland’s foreign minister formally sealed Helsinki’s membership by depositing the accession papers before the Finnish flag was raised between those of France and Estonia to the singing of a choir outside NATO’S gleaming Brussels headquarters.
“Finland now has the strongest friends and allies in the world,” NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, he said, had “wanted to slam NATO’S door shut. Today we show the world that he failed, that aggression and intimidation do not work.”
Joining NATO puts Finland under the alliance’s Article Five, the collective defence pledge that an attack on one member “shall be considered an attack against them all”.
This was the guarantee Finnish leaders decided they needed as they watched Mr Putin’s assault on Ukraine.
“NATO membership strengthens our international position and room for manoeuvre,” Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto said.
US President Joe Biden said the alliance was strengthened by its newest member and promised to “defend every inch of NATO territory”.
But Moscow erupted in fury at the move, which takes its frontier with NATO member states to 2500km, branding it an “assault” on Russia’s security and national interests.
“This forces us to take countermeasures … in tactical and strategic terms,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Invaded by its giant neighbour, the Soviet Union, in 1939, Finland – which has a 1300km border with Russia – stayed out of NATO throughout the Cold War.
Now its membership brings a potent military into the alliance with a wartime strength of 280,000 and one of Europe’s largest artillery arsenals.
Its strategic location bolsters NATO’S defences on a border running from the vulnerable Baltic States to the increasingly competitive Arctic.
Senior NATO military commander Admiral Rob Bauer said Finland had so far not requested its new allies station troops on its soil.
NATO officials say the war in Ukraine has sapped Moscow’s forces, but the alliance is monitoring how Russia responds to gauge its steps.
Turkey and Hungary, attempting to gain leverage over allies in separate political battles, had delayed Finland’s bid to come under the NATO umbrella – and Stockholm’s progress remains blocked.
But last week, the Turkish parliament cleared Finland’s final hurdle. Completing the ratification in under a year makes it the fastest membership in recent history.