Brussels: Finland will become an official member of the NATO military alliance within days, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg has announced. Turkey’s Parliament approved Finland’s application to join the 30-member NATO. After months of opposition, Turkey gave the green light to Finland. With this, the last obstacle in front of Finland’s NATO accession was removed.
Last year, Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO after abandoning their military neutrality policy in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Sweden’s accession is still half-way through as Hungary and Turkey have not yet ratified it.
A meeting of foreign ministers from the bloc’s countries will be held at NATO headquarters in Brussels next week. Finland’s membership may be made official then.