NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said today that the Alliance is willing to integrate Finland “quickly” if you apply for admission, after today the leaders of the Nordic country have given their support to join the organization in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(Also read: Sweden and Finland would submit an application to join NATO at the same time)
“I welcome the joint statement President (Finnish Sauli) Niinistö and Prime Minister (Sanna) Marinsupporting the request to join NATO without delay,” Stoltenberg said in a message to the press, in which he emphasized that the doors of the Atlantic Alliance “are open.”
Stoltenberg stressed that the option to join NATO is a “sovereign decision of Finland, which the organization fully respects.”
“If Finland decided to apply for membership, it would be warmly welcomed into NATO and the accession process would be smooth and fast”he underlined.
The Norwegian politician stressed that Finland is “one of the closest partners” of the Allianceas well as “a mature democracy, a member of the European Union and an important contributor to Euro-Atlantic security”.
“I agree with President Niinistö and Prime Minister Marin in which joining NATO would strengthen both the security of the Alliance and that of Finland”, considered the Allied Secretary General
Finland abandons neutrality
Niinistö and Marin gave their support this Thursday for the country’s entry into NATO, in a historic decision that breaks with more than eight decades of non-alignment.
“Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay. We hope that the steps at the national level still necessary to make this decision will be taken quickly in the coming days,” the two leaders said in a joint statement. convinced that NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s security and, in turn, the Nordic country would make the Alliance stronger.
(You may be interested: This is the process that a country must follow to enter NATO)
Both the president and the prime minister had kept their position secret until now so as not to influence the public debate on NATO, which was reactivated after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
This is a decisive step that gives a strong impetus to the accession process in Finlandsince the security and defense policy is a competence shared by the president and the Executive.
The rest of the coalition government and the Eduskunta (Parliament) still have to give their official support to formalize the application for admission, something that could happen in the coming days, given the broad consensus that exists between the political parties.
The NATO defense ministers are scheduled to meet this weekend in Berlin to prepare for the allied leaders’ summit in Madrid at the end of June, a meeting in which they may also address the possible accession of Finland.
EFE
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