Finland joins NATO after circumventing the Turkish veto leaving Sweden behind

BRUSSELS, 4 (EUROPA PRESS) - Finland has joined this Tuesday as a new member of NATO and thus becomes the 31st ally of the military bloc, once Turkey has completed the ratification of its entry after months of reluctance due to the lack of cooperation in the fight against Kurdish terrorism from Finland and Sweden, which is still pending.

The formal entry culminates after Finland has delivered its own instrument of accession in an act with the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, at the NATO headquarters, on the occasion of the meeting of allied foreign ministers.

"With the receipt of this instrument of accession we can now declare that Finland is the 31st member of the North Atlantic Treaty," Blinken assured after receiving the document from the Finnish Foreign Minister, Pekka Haavisto. In its first action as a NATO ally, Finland wanted to send a signal of support to Stockholm and delivered the document ratifying Sweden's accession to the United States.

Helsinki's entry into NATO also coincides with the anniversary of the Washington Treaty with which the military organization was founded 74 years ago today, so the ceremony is loaded with symbolism.

Finland formally applied to join NATO in May 2022, hand in hand with Sweden, in an unprecedented turn to its policy of neutrality that was directly in response to the growing threat stemming from Russian expansionist activities in Ukraine. Not surprisingly, Finland shares more than 1,300 kilometers of border with Russia.

The bloc integration of the two Nordic countries initially ran into Turkey's misgivings, which seemed resolved after a tripartite agreement in the hours before the summit of leaders of the Atlantic Alliance in Madrid. This was not the case for Sweden, which continued to be targeted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Ankara's blockade of Stockholm led to the advance of Helsinki alone. Although initially the Finnish government maintained that its intention was always to continue hand in hand with the Swede, the impossibility of moving forward together led Finland to assume that it would have to go it alone if it wanted to achieve its short-term goal.

Thus, the final approvals of Hungary and Turkey -Erdogan promulgated the accession this past Saturday-, have led to the formal ceremony on Tuesday, with which Finland has become the 31st member state of the Atlantic Alliance of NATO and is entitled to the same clauses as the other partners, including collective defense.

The final entry also comes at a key moment internally in Finland, since the parliamentary elections on Sunday ended with the victory of the conservatives to the detriment of the Social Democrats, led by the current prime minister, Sanna Marin, who despite improving in votes and seats will not foreseeably revalidate the position.