Finland has become the 31st member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO).
It has been reported that this is as the nation officially joined the organisation on Tuesday.
The development was contained in a statement issued by President Sauli Niinisto on Tuesday, April 4, 2023.
According to him, the Finnish era of military non-alignment has come to an end, noting that members in the military alliance will provide security for Finland and as well as strengthen its international position.
Niinisto also stated that Finland applied to join NATO together with Sweden, adding that “It is a great day for Finland and I want to say that it is an important day for NATO.”
It was gathered that Finland’s Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto formally wrapped up the process by handing Helsinki’s accession papers to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the formal keeper of NATO’s founding treaty.
Blinken at a ceremony in NATO’s Brussels headquarters on Tuesday said “With the receipt of this instrument of accession, we can now declare that Finland is the 31st member of the North Atlantic Treaty.”
At the ceremony, it was learnt that the NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said that Russian President Vladimir Putin had “wanted to slam NATO’s door shut. Today we show the world that he failed and that aggression and intimidation do not work.
“Finland now has the strongest friends and allies in the world.”
According to him, joining NATO places Finland under the alliance’s Article Five, the collective defence pledge that an attack on one member “shall be considered an attack against them all.”
