NATO's Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has announced that Finland will become the alliance's newest member by 15:30 on Tuesday, with the Scandinavian country's accession set to be formalised by Stoltenberg and Finnish President Sauli Niinistö.
The Secretary-General confirmed that Finland would be joining NATO at a press conference on Monday after the Turkish Parliament ratified the Finnish membership bid on Thursday.
Finland alongside neighbouring country Sweden had long opted not to join the military alliance but both countries decided to in the aftermath of the war in Ukraine.
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While the Finnish accession plans have been approved by Turkey, Sweden's membership bid has so far been refused by Turkish authorities over the political asylum the Scandinavian state has granted to Kurdish activists, whom Turkey views as terrorists.
Sweden’s NATO application has also so far not been ratified by Hungary for unclear reasons. Asked by The Brussels Times at the European Commission’s press conference on Monday about an explanation, the spokesperson for foreign affairs declined to comment. “NATO is a different institution and we are not commenting on what is going on within it.”
That said, he hoped and expected that NATO will be able to proceed with Sweden’s membership. EU’s position is that everyone will benefit from it because it will strengthen security and stability in Europe, especially since the majority of NATO members are also EU members.
Whether Hungary’s behaviour will affect the talks on EU funding to Hungary that has been suspended because of concerns about the rule of the law and financial management in the country was left unanswered.
Finland will be joining NATO amidst a political transition after Sunday's parliamentary elections.
Prime Minister Sanna Marin's centre-left party lost to the the centre-right National Coalition Party (NCP), led by former Finance Minister Petteri Orpo, who earned 20.8% of the votes, ahead of Riikka Purra's populist Finns Party on 20.1% and Marin's Social Democrats (SDP) on 19.9%.
