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Updated May 15th, 2022 at 16:47 IST

Finland's President & PM officially announce country's intention to join NATO

The Finnish government officially announced on Sunday that the country intends to apply for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization membership. Read further.

Reported by: Anurag Roushan
Finland
Image: AP | Image:self
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In the latest development, the Finnish government officially announced on Sunday that the country intends to apply for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) membership. Speaking at a joint press conference, Finland's President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin made the announcement in Helsinki. "This is a historic day. A new era begins," Niinisto said, as per the Associated Press (AP). As per reports, the decision is expected to be approved by the Finnish Parliament in the next few days. 

This comes after Finland's Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto stated that his country might apply for NATO membership on Wednesday, May 18. "Our permanent representative to NATO in Brussels will do this [apply] possibly on Wednesday. If talks with NATO begin, they will be taken care of by a delegation led by the foreign minister and the defence minister," he told the Aftonbladet newspaper, as reported by the TASS news agency. The debate over Finland's potential NATO membership had intensified in early April and the majority of the country's political leaders are in favour of joining the military alliance.

'Finland & Sweden are already the closest partners of NATO': Mircea Geoana

Meanwhile, Sweden has also taken moves towards joining NATO, while Georgia's candidacy is once again being debated, despite Moscow's severe warnings about the implications if its neighbour joins the intergovernmental military alliance. "Finland and Sweden are already the closest partners of NATO. I expect allies to view their applications positively," Mircea Geoana, NATO Deputy-Secretary General, remarked. Furthermore, Annalena Baerbock, Germany's foreign minister, stated that her country and others have expressed willingness to expedite the national ratification process for Finland and Sweden. 

About NATO

It should be mentioned here that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is a 30-member intergovernmental military alliance. The organisation was established in the aftermath of World War II to implement the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed on April 4, 1949. The alliance is a collective security arrangement in which NATO's independent member states commit to defending each other in the event of an external attack. Since the end of the Cold War, the alliance has been involved in military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa, among other places.

(With inputs from AP)

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Published May 15th, 2022 at 16:47 IST

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