Finland officially becomes a member of NATO. The announcement made by Jens Stoltenberg
Finland will officially become a member of NATO on Tuesday, the office of the Finnish president announced. This was also confirmed by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who said the move would make Finland "more secure", reports SkyNews.
The country, which shares a border with Russia, applied to join the military alliance following Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine last year.
"We will raise the Finnish flag for the first time here at NATO headquarters. It will be a good day for Finland's security, for Nordic security and for NATO as a whole," he told reporters in Brussels.
The northern nation, which shares a border with Russia, applied to join the military alliance following the Russian Federation's invasion of Ukraine. It is the first enlargement of NATO since North Macedonia joined the alliance in 2020.
Turkey was the last of the 30 NATO members to accept Finland's request last month.
Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said in early March that Finland had secured Turkey's blessing after it took concrete steps to follow through on promises to crack down on groups Ankara considers terrorists and free up defense exports. However, Turkey is still blocking Sweden's approval of NATO membership, with the government saying Stockholm has so far failed to sufficiently crack down on similar groups.
Turkey has repeatedly said Sweden must take further action against supporters of Kurdish militants and members of the network it holds responsible for a 2016 coup attempt.
