Topic
- Finland’s decision to join Nato broke with seven decades of military non-alignment and roughly doubled the length of the border Nato shares with Russia
- Ahead of a bilateral meeting with Niinisto, Biden hailed Finland as an asset to the military alliance, ‘I don’t think Nato has ever been stronger’, he said
‘We got the biggest mandate,’ NCP leader Petteri Orpo said in a speech to followers, vowing to ‘fix Finland’ and its economy. Marin, 37, has faced criticism for her partying and her government’s public spending.
The 30 Nato allies will now begin a months-long period to ratify membership of the two Nordic countries.
Erdogan has objected to the two Nordic nations becoming members of Nato over their failure to address Turkey’s terror-related concerns.
Cut-off was announced the same week that Finland, along with Sweden, applied to join Nato, marking one of the biggest geopolitical ramifications of the war in Ukraine that could rewrite Europe’s security map.
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow would create new military bases in western Russia in response to the expansion of Nato.
The monumental decision was prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; the attack shifted popular opinion overnight, kicking off a process to join the alliance; Sweden is also expected to follow suit.
Russia threatened to deploy nuclear weapons in and around the Baltic Sea region if Finland and Sweden join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as tensions fueled by President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine spread.
