Finland officially becomes a NATO member

According to The Guardian, at NATO headquarters in Brussels (Belgium), Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto signed and handed over the NATO membership document to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in the presence of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Outside the bloc's headquarters, a Finnish flag-raising ceremony was also held.

Finland's admission ended seven decades of neutrality for the Nordic country and set a record for the fastest time for a new NATO member to be approved, with Finland taking just over 10 months from submitting its application to becoming a full member of the bloc.

"This will make Finland safer and NATO stronger," CNN quoted NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as emphasizing to reporters right before the ceremony took place.

With Finland becoming the 31st member of NATO, Russia's border with the alliance's member states has now doubled in length. Specifically, Finland shares a 1,340km-long eastern border with Russia.

Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO in May 2022. A month later, the Nordic countries' applications were approved at the NATO Summit. However, objections from Turkey and Hungary - two NATO members - delayed the approval process for Sweden and Finland's membership.

It was only last month that Finland’s NATO membership bid was approved by Ankara and Budapest. However, Finland’s neighbor Sweden is still stuck on the path to NATO membership.

Turkey believes that Stockholm has not done enough to combat those Ankara considers terrorists. The three countries signed a treaty on the issue last year. Hungary, on the other hand, believes that some Swedish politicians have used their political influence through diplomatic channels to harm Hungary's interests; and stressed that Stockholm needs to change its stance towards Budapest.

However, also on April 4, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg affirmed that he will make efforts to promote Sweden's NATO membership process in the coming time.

NATO's admission of Finland has received harsh criticism from Moscow. TASS reported that on April 4, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu assessed that Finland's accession to NATO and the alliance's increased combat readiness increased the risk of widespread conflict. Meanwhile, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on the same day that this was an act of violating Russia's security and that Moscow would be forced to take countermeasures.

MINH ANH (according to The Guardian, CNN, Reuters, TASS)

Source: https://www.qdnd.vn/quoc-te/tin-tuc/phan-lan-chinh-thuc-tro-thanh-thanh-vien-nato-723945