6 hours agoFinland Joins NATO, Doubles Border of Military Alliance With Russia
Periskopi(3 years ago)
(3 years ago)Finland has become the youngest NATO member, 31st, after holding the accession ceremony Tuesday, April 4th, in Brussels. Before membership is formalised, Secretary General NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, president of Finland, Saul Niinsto, and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken carry out the invitation and accession exchange procedures [...]
Before membership is formalised, Secretary General NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, Finland's president, Saul Niinsto, and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken carried out the exchange procedures for invitation and acceptance of an invitation to a media conference.
Finland was handed over invitations to NATO membership after Blinken said Turkey had handed over the ratification documents of Finland's application for membership.
The application for Finland's membership in the military alliance has been prompted by Russia's war in Ukraine, launched on February 24th 2022.
Finland shares a long border, over 1,000 miles [1,000 km], with Russia.
Sweden, too, has applied for NATO membership at the same time as Finland, but Turkey is blocking it with the reason it is supporting <x0-terrorists”.
As a first act after membership, the Finnish president handed the US Secretary of State ratification of Sweden's NATO membership bid. Any Expansion NATO must be done with the support of all member states so ratifying its application for membership in order to accept other states.
Meanwhile, along Tuesday in Helsinki, NATO flags have been raised along with the Finnish national flag in front of the Foreign Affairs Ministry building, a building that was originally built for the army of the Russian Empire in the 19th century.
Finland, Sweden and Turkey reached a tripartite agreement in June last year, but Ankara suspended negotiations with Sweden following a protest held in Stockholm, where a Koran burned in front of the Turkish Embassy building.
Rather, Ankara wanted Helsinki and Stockholm to take a harsher stance against the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is considered a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies, as well as against another group that blames it for the 2016 coup effort.
But, on 9 March, the two states resumed talks in Brussels.
Erdogan said Sweden's membership in the Western military alliance would directly depend on measures he takes on Turkish demands regarding terrorism.
Ankara has refused to ratify Stockholm's NATO application, even because of Sweden's refusal to extradite dozens of suspects, whom Turkey claims to be linked to Kurdish fighters and to its failed 2016 stamp.
