NATO

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization is set to welcome Finland as its 31st member 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.” It’s been a cornerstone of the 30-member alliance since it was founded in 1949 as a counterweight to the Soviet Union. “People’s mindset in Finland, also in Sweden, changed and shifted very dramatically.” “Everything changed when Russia invaded Ukraine,” outgoing Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said last April. NATO has an open-door policy, meaning that any country can be invited to join if it expresses an interest, as long as it is able and willing to uphold the principles of the alliance’s founding treaty. An overwhelming majority of NATO members welcomed Finland and Sweden’s applications, but two countries – Turkey and Hungary – began to stall the process. Finland’s accession comes days after Turkey’s parliament voted to ratify the country’s membership, clearing the final hurdle for the country to join NATO and putting an end to months of delays. On the eve of Tuesday’s ceremony, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg heralded the raising of the Finnish flag for the first time at the alliance’s headquarters in Belgium, saying “it will be a good day for Finland’s security, for Nordic security, and for NATO as a whole.” The Wilson Center report also noted Finland’s strong cyber security record, pointing out the country is home to Nokia, “a major provider of 5G infrastructure,” and one of three major providers of 5G infrastructure the world, along with Sweden’s Ericsson and China’s Huawei. Finland’s NATO membership guarantees the Northern European nation access to the resources of the entire alliance in the event of attack. [ warned ](https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/12/europe/putin-finland-sweden-nato-backfire-cmd-intl/index.html)that further NATO expansion will not bring more stability to Europe, and on Monday said it would scale up forces near Finland if the alliance sent any troops or equipment to the new member country. [Finland](https://cnn.com/2023/03/30/europe/turkey-vote-finland-nato-membership-intl/index.html) as its 31st [member ](https://www.nato.int/nato-welcome/index.html)on Tuesday, marking a major shift in the security landscape in northeastern Europe that adds [some 1,300 kilometers (830 miles](https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/29/europe/nato-sweden-finland-summit-explainer-intl/index.html)) to the alliance’s frontier with Russia.