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<\/div>\nFinland becomes the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday in a historic shift. (Representational)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Brussels, Belgium: <\/b><\/p>\n
Finland becomes the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday in a historic shift that drew an angry warning of “countermeasures” from the Kremlin.<\/p>\n
Moscow’s all-out invasion of Ukraine last year upended Europe’s security landscape and prompted Finland — and its neighbour Sweden — to drop decades of military non-alignment.<\/p>\n
“Not so many years ago we thought it was unthinkable that Finland would become a member. Now they will be a fully-fledged member of our alliance and that is truly historic,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said.<\/p>\n
“We are removing the room for miscalculation in Moscow about NATO’s readiness to protect Finland, and that makes Finland safer.”<\/p>\n
Finnish Defence Minister Antti Kaikkonen called it “a win-win situation” ahead of the choreographed final formalities before Finland’s blue-and-white flag can be hoisted in front of NATO’s headquarters.<\/p>\n
But Moscow decried the move as as an “assault” on Russia’s security and national interests.<\/p>\n
“This forces us to take countermeasures… in tactical and strategic terms,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.<\/p>\n
Joining NATO places Finland under the alliance’s Article Five, the collective defence pledge that an attack on one member “shall be considered an attack against them all”.<\/p>\n
This was the guarantee Finnish leaders decided they needed as they watched Russian President Vladimir Putin’s devastating assault on Ukraine.<\/p>\n
“He wanted less NATO along his borders. He wanted to close NATO’s door. No more NATO membership for any more countries in Europe. He’s getting exactly the opposite,” Stoltenberg said.<\/p>\n
Powerful military<\/strong><\/p>\n Invaded by its giant neighbour, the Soviet Union, in 1939, Finland — which has a 1,300-kilometre (800 mile) border with Russia — stayed out of NATO throughout the Cold War.<\/p>\n Now its membership brings a potent military into the alliance with a wartime strength of 280,000 and one of Europe’s largest artillery arsenals.<\/p>\n Its strategic location bolsters NATO’s defences on a border running from the vulnerable Baltic states to the increasingly competitive Arctic.<\/p>\n Senior NATO military commander Admiral Rob Bauer told AFP that Finland had so far not requested its new allies station troops on its soil.<\/p>\n NATO officials say the war in Ukraine has sapped Moscow’s forces, but the alliance is monitoring how Russia responds to gauge its future steps.<\/p>\n Awkward allies Turkey and Hungary, for different reasons of their own, delayed Finland’s bid to come under the NATO umbrella — and Stockholm’s progress remains blocked<\/p>\n But last week, the Turkish parliament voted to clear Finland’s final hurdle.<\/p>\n Completing the ratification in well under a year still makes this the fastest membership process in the alliance’s recent history.<\/p>\n NATO was created as a counterweight to the Soviet Union at the onset of the Cold War era that began immediately after the Allies defeated Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n Sweden soon?<\/strong><\/p>\n Finland’s arrival nevertheless remains a bittersweet moment for the alliance as the hope had been for Sweden to come on board at the same time.<\/p>\n Budapest and Ankara remain the holdouts after belatedly agreeing to wave through Helsinki’s bid.<\/p>\n Sweden has upset Hungary’s leader Viktor Orban — one of Putin’s closest allies in Europe — by expressing alarm over the rule of law in Hungary.<\/p>\n It has also angered Turkey by refusing to extradite dozens of suspects that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan links to a failed 2016 coup attempt and a decades-long Kurdish independence struggle.<\/p>\n NATO diplomats hope Erdogan will become more amenable if he weathers elections next month and that Sweden will join before a NATO summit in Vilnius this July.<\/p>\n “Sweden is ready to join the NATO Alliance,” tweeted US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.<\/p>\n Ukraine is also pushing for eventual NATO membership, but Western diplomats say that remains a still distant prospect.<\/p>\n “There is no better strategic solution to ensuring strategic security in the Euro Atlantic region than the membership of Ukraine in the alliance,” Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.<\/p>\n NATO members in the meantime insist they are focused on providing Ukraine with the weaponry and support it needs to win the war with Russia.<\/p>\n (Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n