Dhe way from Finland to NATO is clear, at least from the Finnish side. Parliament in Helsinki on Wednesday voted by a large majority in favor of a government proposal on legislation needed for the country’s entry into the Western Defense Alliance. President Sauli Niinistö still has to approve the whole thing, but has already announced that he intends to do so immediately after the vote.
However, Finland’s accession has yet to be ratified by Turkey and Hungary, whose parliament on Wednesday began a debate on the acceptance of the accession protocols.
Meeting with Turkey on March 9th
Finland shares a 1340 km border with Russia. In view of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the northernmost country in the EU, like neighboring Sweden, applied for NATO membership in May 2022. The government in Moscow then warned of “far-reaching consequences”.
All 30 NATO members must ratify the two countries’ admission, and all but Turkey and Hungary have already done so. Hungarian approval is expected in the coming week. Things are more difficult with Turkey, which has long blocked NATO’s northern expansion. She justifies this attitude primarily with the fact that Sweden does not take sufficient action against terrorist organizations.
On Monday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu announced in Ankara that Turkey plans to resume talks with Sweden and Finland on March 9. The meeting should take place in Brussels, he said.
Against the background of the Ukraine war, Finland on Tuesday began building a 200-kilometer-long and three-meter-high fence on the border with Russia. After clearing the forest, road construction and the actual fence installation should start in March, the Finnish border guard announced.
According to the border guard, the first section of the fence begins in Imatra in the south-east of the country and extends over three kilometers. According to border guards, it should be completed by the end of June. Another 70 kilometers of fence are to be erected by 2025. Costs of around 380 million euros are planned for the fence
Border fence to prevent illegal entry
The fence, three meters high, is to be fitted with barbed wire and, in some areas, night vision cameras, lights and loudspeakers. Currently, Finland’s border is secured by simple wooden fences. Concerned that Moscow could use migrants as a means of exerting political pressure, however, parliament passed amendments to its border protection law in July that make it easier to strengthen border barriers.
The Finnish-Russian border has “worked well in the past,” Brigadier General Jari Tolppanen told the AFP news agency in November. But the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has “fundamentally” changed the security situation. A border fence is now “essential” to prevent large-scale illegal entry from Russia. In September, numerous Russian nationals came to Finland after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered partial mobilization for deployment in Ukraine.
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