Finland becomes 31st NATO member

Finland became the thirty-first member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on April 4 – nearly a year after applying for admission. The accession of Finland to NATO membership comes as a major setback to the Russian regime, which has feared and protested the organization’s eastward expansion for decades.

Finland’s May 2022 request to join NATO came after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent fears that the war might spill over into neighboring countries. The Russo-Finnish border stretches 832 miles and is now subject to the protection of all NATO member countries. Finland’s admission into the organization  further protects Europe from Russian incursions and is a continued show of force by NATO nations against Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Finland has been an important partner to the organization for about 30 years and has supported NATO-led operations and missions. According to the Global Firepower Index, Finland is capable of activating 900,000 military reservist personnel – a formidable number against Russia’s estimated 830,000 active personnel and 250,000 reservists.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on April 4 that, “Finland brings substantial and highly capable forces, expertise in national resilience and years of experience working side by side with NATO allies.”

Finland’s neighbor, Sweden, also requested to join the alliance last year, however, Turkey – a NATO member – has objected due to concerns that Sweden harbors militants from the Kurdistan Workers Party which fought against the Turkish government in the 1980s. The accession bid was further harmed when images arose from a Swedish protest in January of a figure of Turkey’s President, Tayyip Erdogan, being hanged by anti-Erdogan protestors. Even with these hurdles, talks on allowing Sweden into NATO are ongoing.

At this time, the main goal of NATO member countries and those seeking to join is to deter threats from Russia. While the organization boasts strong military capabilities, those capabilities have, thus far, been rarely tested.

One thing has been made clear, NATO countries’ combined efforts to help Ukraine have renewed belief in the alliance’s relevance and abilities.