NATO

The Nordic nation's decision to join the defense alliance is seen as a blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the Stimson Center's Emma Ashford ...

Finnish leaders obviously felt that it was better to be inside the alliance and reduce that sort of risk of this limbo period even if Sweden weren't there. They fought a war against Russia in the 1930s and into the 1940s for their own self-defense against the Soviet Union, and they kept that up through the Cold War." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov separately told reporters that Finland's accession to NATO was forcing Moscow to take countermeasures to ensure its security. Finland raced to join NATO after Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year. After years of public opposition to joining NATO inside Finland, polling now shows Finns embrace the move. At the ceremony, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg announced, "For almost 75 years, this great alliance has shielded our nations and continues to do so today.

Perhaps most importantly, though, the country's accession cements the dramatic strategic shift that Russian President Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine ...

[peace deal](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/4/3/un-experts-accuse-senior-south-sudan-officials-of-rights-abuses) was signed in 2018 after nearly 400,000 people died. [military relations](https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/02/02/us-philippines-military-bases-lloyd-austin-china-taiwan-war/) have grown in the last few months. On Monday, the [location](https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/04/asia/us-philippines-military-base-access-intl-hnk-ml/index.html) of those new bases was identified. And current Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/03/31/world-leaders-indicted-trump/) has been under indictment since 2019 on corruption charges. In the last 15 years alone, two French presidents, two South Korean presidents, and one Italian prime minister were found guilty of [corruption](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/31/world/trump-world-leaders-indicted.html). And for the first time, a non-American is joining the A-team: Canadian Joseph Monytuil is among the top leaders said to be responsible for state-sanctioned killings in August 2022. 2, the two nations announced a deal increasing Washington’s access to military bases on the island from five to nine locations, an [expansion](https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/2/2/philippines-set-to-allow-wider-us-access-to-military-bases) of the 2014 Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement. But as Robbie Gramer reported for FP Insider, fresh after an evening with the Finnish Diplomatic Sauna Society, NATO headquarters just [installed](https://www.politico.eu/article/finland-sauna-culture-diplomacy-brussels/) its own steamy room. In the meantime, Finns and Western allies alike are celebrating adding Helsinki to the group. By adding Finland, the trans-Atlantic bloc doubles its border with Russia, expands the alliance’s F-35 stealth fighter program, and becomes home to one of the world’s three major 5G infrastructure providers. It’s a historic day for the world’s largest military alliance.

Finland's national flag was raised at NATO headquarters, a deeply symbolic moment and a stark display of the shifting global dynamics.

Finland formally joined NATO on Tuesday, its flag unfurling outside the military bloc's Brussels headquarters, in a historic policy shift brought on by ...

“We used to consider it a brotherly country of the capitalist world, the closest to us in spirit, in … “But now we’ll consider it as a state that is unfriendly to us.” It is one of the few European countries to have retained a conscription army through decades of peace, wary of Russia next door. In Virolahti, near the Russian border, retired combat engineer Ilkka Lansivaara, 70 – whose father was an air force pilot in World War Two – had hung a NATO flag from the side of his house. “I congratulate all the people of Finland,” President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his evening address. “For almost 75 years, this great alliance has shielded our nations and continues to do so today,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg declared at the ceremony.

Authorities in Helsinki decided that in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in Feb. · Finland shares an 832-mile border with Russia, the longest ...

(The deposit of Finland's Instruments of Accession to the North Atlantic Treaty took place.) SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you very much. Well, with receipt of this ...

SECRETARY BLINKEN: Thank you, Pekka. Thank you very much. Thank you, Secretary Blinken. FOREIGN MINISTER HAAVISTO: Thank you, Mr. SECRETARY GENERAL STOLTENBERG: Thanks so much. This is great news, Secretary Blinken.

Finland and Sweden abandoned decades of military nonalignment in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, but Turkey and Hungary have refused to ratify ...

As Finland's flag was hoisted at NATO's headquarters in Brussels, officially marking its entry to the military alliance, it was a bittersweet moment for Kyiv. Ukraine has repeatedly stated its desire to be a part of NATO. Membership for the war-torn ...

Before the invasion, back in January 2022, NATO's Stoltenberg told the BBC: "We have no plans to deploy NATO combat troops to Ukraine ... This was despite several decades of see-sawing between aspirations to join NATO and veering away from it — largely depending on the pro-Russian or pro-Western leanings of Ukraine's leaders at the time. Analysts agree Russia's military power and weaponry, despite its large army, pales in comparison with the advance military hardware and highly trained troops of NATO members, let alone the power this represents when those forces are combined. NATO has proved itself a friend and ally of Ukraine over the past year but for now, Kyiv remains outside the alliance, looking in. If that tenet, enshrined in Article 5, is invoked then all members are bound to come to the defense of that member country. The Kremlin warned Tuesday it would take "countermeasures to ensure our own security both tactically and strategically."

A historian looks at the steps leading up to Finland joining the Western strategic alliance – and what that means for small nations elsewhere.

Even Finland has abandoned it; neutral Sweden is now anxious to join the Western alliance; and other states, even Switzerland, are questioning the efficacy of nonalignment in a polarized world. [swung between a pro-Russian orientation](https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-follows-decades-of-warnings-that-nato-expansion-into-eastern-europe-could-provoke-russia-177999) favored in eastern Ukraine, and a more Ukrainian nationalist identity powerfully evident in western Ukraine. [rules-based order](https://www.lowyinstitute.org/the-interpreter/what-does-rules-based-order-mean)” that the United States and its NATO allies have touted as the best way to run the world is changing – attracting some, yet more suspicious in the eyes of [nations not privy](https://www.brookings.edu/research/the-united-states-china-and-the-new-non-aligned-countries/) to club membership. And the European Union offered Ukraine closer economic and political ties, stirring up fears in Moscow that this was the first step toward NATO. And federalism, which would have required that some decision-making be handed to regional governments, was considered suspect as a viable form of statehood by many in Ukraine and Russia alike. With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, decision-makers in Helsinki have seemingly driven the final nails into the coffin of Finlandization. For centuries it has had to consider its own interests in conjunction with – and in accommodation of – those of its gigantic neighbor: czarist Russia, then the Soviet Union and today Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Similarly, even before the invasion last year, Russia was a problem for Ukraine, with authorities in Kyiv fearing dominance from the East. The price for maintaining its democratic state and capitalist economy in domestic affairs during the Cold War was Finlandization. It underscores just how the Russian invasion of Ukraine has [upset global realities](https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-has-exposed-the-folly-and-unintended-consequences-of-armed-missionaries-197609) long thought settled, at least by the Western powers. and the West over global affairs and seek a system in which [power is distributed regionally](https://theconversation.com/ukraine-war-has-exposed-the-folly-and-unintended-consequences-of-armed-missionaries-197609), with Moscow and Beijing holding sway over what they they see as their parts of the world. In the world of geopolitics, great powers make, break and play by their own rules.

BRUSSELS – Finland officially joined NATO on Tuesday as Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto handed the signed accession treaty to US Secretary of State Antony ...

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Finland has joined the NATO military alliance, dealing a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The era of nonalignment in our history has come to an end -– a new era begins,” President Sauli Niinistö said before his country’s blue-and-white flag was raised outside NATO headquarters. The Nordic country’s membership doubles Russia’s border with the world’s biggest security alliance. Watch the full event in the player above.

Finland officially became the 31st member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Tuesday, marking a major shift in the security landscape in ...

"At the same time we celebrate and enjoy that Finland is now a full-fledged member, we should continue work to finalize the Swedish accession process." This historic step will strengthen the Alliance, reinforce European & Transatlantic security and contribute to further fostering our #EU-NATO strategic partnership." It is good for Nordic security and it's good for NATO as a whole. It's been a cornerstone of the 30-member alliance since it was founded in 1949 as a counterweight to the Soviet Union. With #Finland, our defense alliance has gained a strong friend," he tweeted. In the future, Finland will make a contribution to NATO's collective deterrence and defense," it added. "Finland, welcome to NATO," Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak tweeted. "Today, we show the world that he failed, that aggression and intimidation do not work. "People's mindset in Finland, also in Sweden, changed and shifted very dramatically." "Finland has today become a member of the defense alliance NATO. "Joining NATO is good for Finland. At the same time, NATO membership strengthens our international position and room for maneuver.

Finland officially became the 31st member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Tuesday, marking a major shift in the security landscape in ...

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