Finland joins NATO, Russia threatens reprisals

by Anne Kauranen and Andrew Gray

HELSINKI/BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Finland officially became NATO’s 31st member on Tuesday, a “historic” shift prompted by Russia’s offensive in Ukraine and deemed hostile by Moscow, which warned of “countermeasures” .

With Finland joining, the transatlantic alliance sees the borders it shares with Russia double in length and strengthens its eastern flank as the war in Ukraine continues to rage with no end in sight.

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto completed the membership process by handing over an official document to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

“President (Vladimir) Putin had the declared objective with the invasion of Ukraine to weaken NATO. He achieves the exact opposite”, declared Jens Stoltenberg a few hours before the official integration of Finland. “Finland today, and soon also Sweden, will become a full member of the Alliance,” he added.

Sweden, which also became a candidate last year, must continue to wait to join the Western military organization because of the veto of Turkey and Hungary.

The Kremlin has warned that Russia will be forced to take “countermeasures” to Finland joining NATO. His spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, on Tuesday denounced an “intrusion” against the security and national interests of Russia.

For his part, the Russian Defense Minister, Sergei Shoigu, considered that this enlargement of the transatlantic alliance was likely to aggravate the conflict in Ukraine.

Moscow had already warned on Monday that it was going to strengthen its military capacities in its western regions in response to Finland’s accession to NATO. However, Russia had begun long before that to deploy its troops closer to the eastern flank of the alliance.

SWEDEN IS STILL PATIENT

This marks the beginning of a new era for Finland, after decades of military non-alignment following the Soviet Union’s invasion attempt in World War II. Helsinki had since favored the maintenance of cordial relations with neighboring Russia.

However, the offensive in Ukraine launched on February 24, 2022, which Moscow presents as a “special military operation” but qualified as an “invasion” by the West, pushed Finland to join NATO, whose collective defense pact states that an attack on one of its members is an attack on all.

Sweden has made the same shift in its security policy and asked at the same time as Finland to join NATO. But his candidacy has not yet been approved by Turkey and Hungary, while the green light from all members of the Alliance is essential for a new membership.

Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstroem told reporters that Stockholm had ambitions to become a NATO member at the alliance’s summit scheduled for July in Lithuania’s capital Vilnius.

“This is an issue of the utmost importance for Sweden … There is no reason for the Turkish parliament or the Hungarian parliament to delay things further,” he said. .

Ankara accuses Sweden of harboring members of what it considers to be terrorist groups, which Stockholm denies, and has requested their extradition before ratifying its candidacy.

Hungary is also blocking this candidacy following criticism of the respect for democratic values ​​by its Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

NATO diplomats have said they expect Hungary to give the green light once Turkey lifts its veto – which they say could come after presidential and parliamentary elections in May.

Jens Stoltenberg expressed his optimism that Sweden will become a member of NATO. “It’s a priority for NATO, for me, to ensure that this happens as soon as possible,” he said.

(Report Anne Kauranen and Tom Little in Helsinki, Andrew Gray in Brussels; French version Jean Terzian, Jean-Stéphane Brosse and Blandine Hénault, edited by Tangi Salaün)