- Finland to join NATO today as the 31st member and add 800 miles to the alliance border with Russia.
- The alliance will welcome Finland in a flag-raising ceremony at its headquarters near Brussels.
- NATO chief has said Ukraine will join the alliance once it wins the war.
- Russia has said it will strengthen its military capacity in western and north western regions, the state-owned RIA news agency reported.
- The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two North American.
Finland to join NATO today as the 31st member and add 800 miles to the alliance border with Russia. The NATO Secretary-General said that Turkey, the last country to have ratified Finland’s membership, will hand its official texts to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on April 4, as NATO Foreign Ministers gather in Brussels.
The alliance will welcome Finland in a flag-raising ceremony at its headquarters near Brussels. NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has said Ukraine will join the alliance once it wins the war. The group operates a collective defence pact, meaning an attack on one member is considered an attack on all.
Finland is a Northern European nation bordering Sweden, Norway and Russia. Its capital, Helsinki, occupies a peninsula and surrounding islands in the Baltic Sea. Helsinki is home to the 18th-century sea fortress Suomenlinna, the fashionable Design District and diverse museums. The Northern Lights can be seen from the country’s Arctic Lapland province, a vast wilderness with national parks and ski resorts.
Russia has said it will strengthen its military capacity in western and north western regions, the state-owned RIA news agency reported. When it invaded Ukraine, Moscow said the move was partly in response to NATO’s aggressive expansion, yet it was the invasion that prompted Norway to apply for membership.
RIA cited deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko as saying: “In the event that the forces and resources of other NATO members are deployed in Finland, we will take additional steps to reliably ensure Russia’s military security.”
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two North American. Established in the aftermath of World War II, the organization implemented the North Atlantic Treaty, signed in Washington, D.C., on 4 April 1949. NATO is a collective security system, its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by third parties. During the Cold War, NATO operated as a check on the perceived threat posed by the Soviet Union. The alliance remained in place after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and has been involved in military operations in the Balkans, the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa.
NATO’s main headquarters are located in Brussels, Belgium, while NATO’s military headquarters are near Mons, Belgium. The alliance has targeted its NATO Response Force deployments in Eastern Europe, and the combined militaries of all NATO members include around 3.5 million soldiers and personnel.
