Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) officially adds a new member. Another European country is now part of the US-led defense alliance.
On Tuesday (4/3/2023), Finland will officially become the 31st member. The Finnish flag will be hoisted outside NATO headquarters.
“Tomorrow we will welcome Finland as our 31st member,” Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters ahead of a historic meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.
“President (Russia) Vladimir Putin went to war against Ukraine with the clear aim of creating ‘less NATO’. (But) he got the opposite,” he explained again quoted from AFP.
This happened after the Turkish parliament approved Finland’s entry by a vote last week. This removes objections previously expressed by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Under NATO rules, the 30 members must approve the presence of new members. This makes Finland the country with the fastest membership process in the history of the alliance.
Finland abandoned decades of military non-alignment policy and signed up to join the western alliance last May after Moscow’s attack on Ukraine. Together with him Sweden also signed up.
Even so, his Swedish counterpart was still blocked by Türkiye. One of them is because of the Kurdish rebels.
In another statement in Brussels, NATO also said Finland’s foreign minister would submit a formal letter of accession to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and accept the guardians of NATO’s founding agreement. Finnish President Sauli Niinisto will speak at the event.
Russian response
Meanwhile, Russia reacted to this announcement. Deputy Foreign Minister of Russia Alexander Grushko mentioned the military potential of the Kremlin.
“We will strengthen our military potential to the west and northwest,” he was quoted as saying by the RIA Novosti news agency.
“In terms of deploying troops and resources of other NATO members on Finnish territory, we will take additional steps to reliably ensure Russia’s military security,” he added.
Russia and Finland share a 1,300 kilometer (800 mi) border.
Russia has previously flagged NATO expansion as an “existential” threat to its security and has used Ukraine’s desire to join the alliance to justify the current war.
(sef/sef)
