Finland’s NATO membership will be official tomorrow

Stoltenberg held a press conference ahead of the NATO Foreign Ministers’ Meeting to be held on April 4-5 at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium.

Stating that Finland will be declared a 31st member on the first day of the meeting and its flag will be raised at the NATO headquarters, Stoltenberg stressed that this will make the country safer and the Alliance stronger.

Stoltenberg reiterated his wish that Sweden complete the accession process as soon as possible.

Right 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, the Hungarian Parliament approved the accession of Finland. On March 30, approval was also obtained in the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Thus, Finland’s NATO membership process was completed in less than a year, making it one of the fastest-progressing membership processes in the Alliance’s 74-year history. (AA)