Finland will be one of the fastest countries to join NATO

Finland has been contributing to many NATO missions since the Cold War and has been cooperating with NATO on many issues as a “partner country” since 1994, but had not declared its intention to join NATO until last year.

The Finnish government changed the principle of neutrality, which the country followed for years, arguing that the security architecture in Europe changed after Russia attacked Ukraine on February 24, 2022.

Finland and its neighbor Sweden, which has a 1,340-kilometre border with Russia, officially applied for NATO membership on May 18, 2022 to enter the NATO security umbrella. Subsequently, at the NATO Summit held in Madrid, the capital of Spain, from June 28 to 30, 2022, the two countries were officially invited to become members. On July 5, NATO countries signed the accession protocol, and Swedish and Finnish officials began attending NATO meetings as “invited countries.”

Türkiye GIVES FINAL APPROVAL

Before the Madrid summit, Turkey expressed some security concerns, especially due to the activities of terrorist organizations such as PKK/YPG and FETO in Sweden. In fact, during the summit the Triple Memorandum on increasing the fight against terrorism was signed between Turkey, Sweden and Finland. Sweden and Finland have committed to further cooperation in the fight against terrorism with this text.

Subsequently, many meetings were held between the three countries. Turkish officials stated that Sweden’s steps in this direction were welcome but insufficient. As for Finland, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced that the approval process will begin on March 17, 2023.

Meanwhile, just after the Madrid Summit held in June 2022, most NATO countries started the approval process for the two countries’ membership. 20 NATO countries completed the ratification process in their parliaments in July, 4 in August and 4 in September.

Finally, on March 27, 2023, the Hungarian parliament approved the accession of Finland. The approval in Turkey’s Grand National Assembly was received on March 30. Thus, the process of Finland’s accession to NATO will be completed in less than a year.

Following ratifications by 30 NATO allies, Finland receives security guarantees in accordance with Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, which stipulates that “an attack on one member is considered an attack on all members”. (AA)