Finland Joins NATO - to Protect Scandinavia from Russia
Flag of Finland hoisted at the NATO headquarters
Brussels — A new flagpole awaits the Finnish flag at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, as the Nordic country became the military alliance’s 31st member on Tuesday. Finland shares a huge border with Russia and has been fairly neutral when it comes to the activities of the NATO alliance. However, after the start of the Russian-Ukraine conflict, their neutral stance has taken an obvious shift. Finland’s accession to NATO is being considered a political and strategic setback for Russian President, Vladimir Putin.
Finland joining NATO also marks the fastest accession process in the organization’s history. NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg has welcomed the new arrival. “It will be a good day for Finland’s security, for Nordic security, and for NATO as a whole. Sweden will also be safer as a result,” said Stoltenberg.
Although weakened elections mean Finland looks to have lost the Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, who championed NATO membership, the accession has cross-party support. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered applications from both Finland and Sweden, however, Turkey delayed the process, complaining that Finland was supporting terrorists. That anchor is still blocking Sweden’s application on similar grounds. To elaborate, Sweden has a long history of receiving a significant number of Kurdish asylum seekers, who have settled in the country and are still living there. Turkey considers Kurdish militants a national security threat, while Sweden is simply providing refuge to asylum seekers.
NATO sees Finland’s membership as an asset since the country’s military is considered to be one of the most modern and capable in Europe. Unlike most members of the alliance, Finland didn’t cut defense spending after the Cold War and has a large well-trained army. Russia has warned that it will bolster its own forces along the Finnish border should NATO troops be deployed there.
In terms of the immediate effects of this new alliance with Finland, the world can expect Russia’s disdain as this is a radical change of security in the region. In reality, there’s not a lot that Russia can do in order to counter this action. The country doesn’t nearly have enough troops in order to pack this Frontier, since they’re sending all of their available military personnel to Ukraine.
This strategic move is considered as the biggest development in European security since the re-militarization of Germany in 1955, when the country came into NATO as a re-militarized state, after WWII. Today, we’re presented with a situation where NATO has been stronger than ever before, military and politically, and Russia is now in a situation where it can’t do very much about that.
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