The Finnish Parliament approved accession to the this Wednesday 1st North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), for which the country still needs ratification by Hungary and Turkey.
Fearing a Russian invasion of Ukraine, Finland decided to end the military nonalignment policy that had been in place since the 1990s, abandoning its neutral stance, and submitted an application to NATO in May 2022.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg favored the accession of Finland and Sweden to the organization and called on Turkey and Hungary to approve the two countries’ accession to the alliance on Tuesday, April 28.
The accession of countries from Europe’s far north is almost unanimously backed by Finland’s political parties, including those opposed to NATO before the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Finnish MPs voted 184 votes in favor of a law allowing the country to join the military alliance. Only a small group of farleft and farright MEPs voted against.
Passing the law does not mean that the country will join NATO, but it does set a clear timetable for Finland’s membership.
Stoltenberg said the most important thing is not that Finland and Sweden join at the same time, but that they join as soon as possible.