AFP | | Posted by Animesh Chaturvedi
Finland’s flag shall be hoisted exterior NATO headquarters on Tuesday when it turns into the latest member of the Western alliance, Secretary Normal Jens Stoltenberg mentioned.
“Tomorrow we are going to welcome Finland because the thirty first member,” Stoltenberg informed reporters on the eve of a historic assembly of NATO overseas ministers in Brussels.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine final yr upended European safety and pushed Finland — and its neighbour Sweden — to drop a long time of non-alignment and search to hitch NATO’s protecting umbrella.
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Objections from Turkey and Hungary held up Helsinki’s bid for months, and are nonetheless blocking Stockholm, earlier than the parliament in Ankara cleared the ultimate impediment for Finland with a vote final week.
Finishing the ratification in nicely beneath a yr nonetheless makes this the quickest membership course of within the alliance’s latest historical past.
Now all that’s left are the final extremely choreographed formalities at NATO headquarters in Brussels.
Additionally Learn: Finland clears final hurdle to hitch NATO, flanked by Turkey
Finland’s overseas minister will hand over the formal accession papers to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the keeper of NATO’s founding treaty, and the nation’s blue-and-white flag shall be raised alongside these of its new allies.
Finland’s President Sauli Niinisto will converse on the occasion, Helsinki mentioned.
“President Putin went to battle in opposition to Ukraine with a transparent goal to get much less NATO,” Stoltenberg mentioned.
“He is getting the precise reverse.”