In a historic realignment of Europe’s defences, Finland on Tuesday became the 31st member of NATO in a move that has now drawn angry warnings of ‘countermeasures’ from the Kremlin.
Africa Today News, New York reports that Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022 upended Europe’s security landscape and prompted Finland — and its neighbour Sweden — to end decades of military non-alignment in the region.
Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto formally wrapped up the process by handing Helsinki’s accession papers to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the formal keeper of NATO’s founding treaty.
Speaking at a ceremony in NATO’s Brussels headquarters, Blinken said; ‘With receipt of this instrument of accession, we can now declare that Finland is the 31st member of the North Atlantic Treaty’.
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NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had ‘wanted to slam NATO’s door shut. Today we show the world that he failed, that aggression and intimidation do not work.’
‘Finland now has the strongest friends and allies in the world,’ he said.
Joining NATO places 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’.
Africa Today News, New York reports that this was the guarantee Finnish leaders decided they needed as they watched Putin’s devastating assault on Ukraine.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said: ‘It is a great day for Finland and I want to say that it is an important day for NATO.’
However, it is fairly surprising that Moscow has now erupted in fury at the move, which doubles its land border with NATO member states to about 2,500 kilometres (1,550 miles), branding it an ‘assault’ on Russia’s security and national interests.