Finland to join Nato today in step that doubles length of alliance’s land border with Russia

Finland will today become Nato’s 31st member.

Turkey approved Helsinki’s membership bid last Thursday – the final hurdle to its entrance to the alliance.

Nato Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg yesterday welcomed Finland’s accession.

“We will raise the Finnish flag for the first time here at Nato headquarters. It will be a good day for Finland’s security, for Nordic security and for Nato as a whole,” he said in Brussels.

The flag-raising ceremony will take place this afternoon after Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto hands over the formal accession papers to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the keeper of Nato’s founding treaty.

Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin was defeated in a general election at the weekend. However, Nato accession is broadly supported by Finnish parties and President Sauli Niinisto – who was not up for election – led the final stage of negotiations with Turkey.

After decades of non-alignment, Finland and Sweden applied to join Nato in May last year, abandoning the policy after Russia invaded Ukraine.

While most members supported the bids and accepted their applications in June, Turkey and Hungary blocked the ratification process required from all Nato members.

Mr Stoltenberg said Finland’s membership would double the length of Nato’s land border with Russia.

This went against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aim to weaken the alliance, he said.

“Putin went to war against Ukraine with the clear aim to get less Nato,” said Mr Stoltenberg. “He’s getting the exact opposite.”

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said Russia would strengthen its military capacity in its western and north-western regions, state-owned news agency RIA reported.

Finland’s accession process has been smoother than that of Sweden, which is still negotiating with Turkey.

Turkey accuses Stockholm of failing to crack down on Kurdish groups in Sweden, which Ankara considers to be terrorist organisations.

“We are still moving very quickly in this accession process also for Sweden,” said Mr Stoltenberg. “We shouldn’t give the impression that Sweden is left alone.”

But he also said he recognised Turkey’s “legitimate security concerns”.