Finland Joins NATO, Becomes 31st Member Of Organisation

Finland has officially joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO, making it the 31st member of the western alliance.

Finland became a member of NATO on Tuesday.

By this, it wrapped up its historic strategic shift with the deposit of its accession documents to the alliance.

“With the receipt of this instrument of accession, we can now declare that Finland is the 31st member of the North Atlantic Treaty,” US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the official keeper of the treaty, said.

NATO’s Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg had on Monday, said Finland’s flag will be hoisted outside NATO’s headquarters on Tuesday.

“Tomorrow we will welcome Finland as the 31st member,” Stoltenberg told reporters on the eve of a historic meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine last year upended European security and pushed Finland — and its neighbour Sweden — to drop decades of non-alignment and seek to join NATO’s protective umbrella.

Objections from Turkey and Hungary held up Helsinki’s bid for months, and are still blocking Stockholm before the parliament in Ankara cleared the final obstacle for Finland with a vote last week.

Reports say completing the ratification in well under a year still makes this the fastest membership process in the alliance’s recent history.

Brief History Of NATO

NATO also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 31 member states – 29 European and two North American. Established in the aftermath of World War II, the organisation implemented the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949. NATO is a collective security system: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties.

In other news, Kanyi Daily reported that the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant of arrest for Russian President, Vladimir Putin for war crimes.

The court, which issued the warrant of arrest, said Putin is involved in the abductions of children from Ukraine.