On Tuesday, April 4, the North Atlantic Alliance expanded - Finland became the 31st member of NATO. At the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto presented the official document to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg was present during this procedure.
Blinken called Finland’s accession to NATO a “historic day”. He stressed that Finland decided to abandon the status of a neutral state because of the war that Russia unleashed against Ukraine.
“I am inclined to say that this is perhaps the only thing we can thank Mr. Putin for, because he has once again accelerated what he claims he wants to prevent,” Blinken said ironically.
Stoltenberg also spoke in this vein. “This will make Finland safer and NATO stronger. The declared by the president by invading Ukraine was the reduction of NATO along the Russian borders and no new members of the alliance in Europe. And he got the exact opposite, NATO Secretary General stressed.
Recall that Finland has applied to join the alliance together with Sweden. However, Türkiye has not yet given its consent to Sweden’s accession to NATO. The Charter of the North Atlantic Alliance requires the ratification of applications by each country that is part of the alliance.
“Finnish membership will not be complete without Swedish membership. The work to get Sweden into NATO as soon as possible continues tirelessly.” Finnish President Sauli Niinostiio said on April 4.
Moscow reacted very sharply to Finland’s entry into NATO. Press Secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov said: “The Kremlin believes that this is another aggravation of the situation. NATO expansion is an encroachment on our security and national interests, we talked about this. And that’s how we perceive it. And, of course, this forces us to take countermeasures to ensure our own security, both tactically and strategically.”
However, Russia has clearly lost from NATO expansion. The length of Russia’s land borders with the countries of the alliance has doubled since April 4! The arithmetic is simple: before Finland joined the alliance, the border was about 1300 km. Now it is more than 2600 km!
The Finns received a powerful security guarantee through Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty. It views an attack on one of the NATO states as an attack on the entire alliance.
Another important point: the strategic bases of Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles and the bases of the Northern Fleet are concentrated in the areas bordering Finland. The supply of these strategic facilities is carried out along one railway line and one highway, which branch out only to the north of Lake Ladoga. This gives NATO forces a significant advantage. Assuming a direct armed conflict breaks out between Russia and the Alliance, it would be no problem for NATO to quickly and effectively cut that supply line anywhere within 500 kilometers.
Earlier reported that, according to Danish intelligence, Putin made it clear that he does not approve of the desire of Sweden and Finland to join NATO. Therefore, it is likely that Russia will threaten them with nuclear weapons.
Source: Fakty
I am Joseph Zeman, a journalist who mostly covers world news for the Daily News Hack. I pride myself on being able to find and report stories that others might miss. I have a knack for being able to see both sides of every issue and this allows me to provide readers with well-rounded stories. In addition to my work as a journalist, I am also an author and have written several books on current affairs.
