Finland becomes 31st Nato member

Author: Chany Ninrew | Published: Tuesday, April 4, 2023

An empty flagpole awaits the raising of the white and blue flag of Finland at Nato headquarters. | Photo: OLIVIER MATTHYS/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock.

Finland has become the 31st member of the European defense alliance Nato despite Russia’s complaints about Western expansion around its borders.

The Finnish flag will be raised shortly at Nato headquarters in Brussels, Belgium to mark the country’s official Nato membership.

The BBC understands that Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and the US Secretary of State will join Nato ministers for a joining ceremony.

Russia’s lose of Finland to Nato has now doubled the length of its border with Nato member states.

Finland shares a 1,340-km (832-mile) eastern frontier with Russia and formally applied to join the Western security alliance with Sweden last May because of Russia’s war.

The two countries bordering Russia, had previously both adopted a policy of non-alignment.

But in the face of the invasion of Ukraine, they now prefer to move to the protective guarantee provided by Nato’s Article Five, which says an attack on one member is an attack on all.

Sweden’s application has for now become stuck, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing Stockholm of embracing Kurdish militants and allowing them to demonstrate on the streets.

Some of the information in this story were obtained from BBC.

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