The official social media account of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation (@NATO_ACT) shared a simple photo of the Finnish flag alongside the NATO flag in a social media post on Thursday evening. It officially welcomed the Nordic nation to the international military alliance.
“All #NATO member countries have ratified Finland’s membership; the Alliance is stronger, and #Finland will help improving #NATO’s stability and security in the Baltic Sea region and Northern Europe. Welcome, Finland! #WeAreNATO,” @NATO_ACT tweeted.
Finland will become a formal member of NATO within days, following a unanimous vote by the Turkish Parliament that ratified the accession. The Turkish vote, which occurred just minutes before midnight in Ankara, came after months of delay.
“All 30 NATO members have now ratified Finland’s membership. I want to thank every one of them for their trust and support. Finland will be a strong and capable Ally, committed to the security of the Alliance,” Finnish President Sauli Niinistö also via a post on social media.
Finland, which had maintained neutrality throughout the Cold War, applied for membership last May, prompted by Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.
Finland In – But Not Sweden
It was joined by Sweden, a country that has an even longer history of neutrality that dates back to the end of the Napoleonic War more than two centuries ago and has also sought membership in NATO. The two countries were formally invited to join the alliance last summer, but the governments of Hungary and Turkey have held up on the ratification of their respective memberships.
Hungary’s Parliament, which ratified Finland’s membership on Monday, has yet to schedule a vote on Sweden. Moreover, Turkey’s government has expressed concerns over Sweden’s support of Kurdish groups, and Ankara has also not scheduled a vote.
However, Turkey’s next elections are in May, and there is now speculation that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is withholding support for Sweden for domestic political reasons, and that he may support Sweden’s bid after the election.
Shared Border and History
Finland shares a 1,340km (832 mile) border with Russia, but it also shares a long and complicated history. Russia took control of Finland from Sweden at the beginning of the 19th century, and during Russian rule, Finland became a special region developed by order of the Tsar. It was only at the end of the First World War that Finland won its independence.
It was invaded by the Soviet Union in late November 1939 – and fought the brutal “Winter War,” which lasted until the middle of March the following year. Though it was able to keep from being overrun entirely, it was forced to cede territory to Moscow. During the Second World War, Finland sided with Nazi Germany in an effort to regain its lost territory. Finland eventually ceded eleven percent of its territory at the end of the conflict, including the major city of Vyborg, but was able to maintain its independence.
During the Cold War, Helsinki attempted to stake a middle ground between the Western and Eastern Blocs, largely to appease the Soviet Union.
Finland is now set to become the newest member of NATO, a distinction previously held by North Macedonia, which joined the alliance as its 30th member on March 27, 2020.
Reaction From the East
Russia had previously cautioned that Finland’s accession to NATO would be seen as a provocation, and threatened to retaliate against Helsinki and Stockholm should they seek to join the alliance. Moscow has warned the two countries would become “legitimate targets.”
On Friday, the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CTSO) also issued a statement that questioned the build-up of NATO forces near Russia. CTSO is the intergovernmental military alliance in Eurasia consisting of six post-Soviet states: Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan.
“There is an unprecedented build-up of NATO military capabilities in the Baltic states, Poland and the Black Sea region,” the Secretariat of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) said on Friday in a statement to Russian state media.
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Author Experience and Expertise:
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
