By John Ikani
Finland must apply to join the NATO military alliance “without delay”, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Thursday, a major policy shift triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance,” President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in the statement.
“Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay,” they added, saying that they hope the decision will be taken “within the next few days.”
Finland shares a long, 1,300-kilometer (810-mile) border with Russia. During the Cold War, Helsinki maintained a form of diplomatic non-alignment between NATO and the Soviet Union, but Moscow’s recent aggression has pushed the Baltic state to reconsider its position.
The decision is a spectacular backfire for Putin who invaded Ukraine in part through fears of NATO expansion, with the Western pact’s presence on Russia’s borders now set to double from 754 miles to 1,584 miles.
Finnish public support for joining NATO has risen to record numbers over recent months, with the latest poll by public broadcaster YLE showing 76 percent of Finns in favor and only 12 percent against, while support for membership used to linger at only around 25 percent for years prior to the war in Ukraine.
While military non-alignment has long satisfied many Finns as a way of staying out of conflicts, Russia’s invasion of sovereign Ukraine has led an increasing number of Finns to view friendly relations with Russia as an empty phrase.
Ukraine’s fate has been particularly disturbing for Finland to watch as it fought two wars with Russia between 1939 and 1944, repelling an attempted invasion but losing around 10 percent of its territory in the subsequent peace agreement.
Finland’s rapid shift towards NATO is likely to pull along neighboring Sweden.
The Nordic nation which has not fought a war for 200 years is expected to announce its decision to join NATO this weekend.
