- Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto stated at a press conference alongside Prime Minister Sanna Marin, “Today, we, the president and the government’s foreign policy committee, have decided that Finland… will apply for NATO membership.”?
- He went on to say that Finland’s membership in the military alliance will “maximize” its security following Russia’s unprecedented invasion of Ukraine in February.?
- NATO, established in 1949 by the United States, Canada, and a few Western European countries to give aggregate protection from current Russia’s ancestor, the Soviet Union.
- Since its beginning, the partnership has had a strained relationship with the Soviet Union and, following its breakdown in 1991, the Russian Federation.
- Finland and Sweden are set to apply for NATO enrollment, the nations declared on Sunday, in a noteworthy move for the Nordic nations known for their tactical impartiality approaches.
- Shortly after Finland’s announcement, Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson stated her support for a NATO application. It comes after her Swedish Social Democratic Party dropped its long-standing opposition to joining the alliance, citing Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine
- Given the closeness, there is a gamble that the move from Helsinki and Stockholm will actuate animosity from Russia, where President Vladimir Putin has more than once expressed his resistance to NATO broadening.
