Finland Joined NATO

As of yesterday, Finland abandoned decades of neutrality and officially became NATO's 31st member. 

Following WWII, and throughout the Cold War, Finland acted as a buffer zone between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.  

In 1994, the country joined the Partnership for Peace programme to cooperate with NATO in peacekeeping and joint exercises without being a NATO member.  In 1995, Finland joined the EU.

When a country joins the EU, there is an obligation to aid any fellow member country that gets invaded.  It's legally binding that all EU members must assist but it allows each country to decide on how to help.  The aid a country provides could be military, political, humanitarian, etc.  This isn't the same thing as NATO Article 5, that says an attack on one is an attack on all.

Due to Article 5, every NATO member must approve any new member.  The USA approved Finland's accession in less than three months.  Czechland was also quick and gave approval in just over three months.

Hungary and Türkiye were the holdouts.  Hungary took 10 months, 1 week, and Türkiye approved after 10,5 months.

Putin didn't want NATO enlargement, but after Russia invaded Ukraine, it got the opposite.  Finland and Sweden both ditch neutrality and applied to join NATO.  Now Russia's direct border with NATO has doubled due to the 1.340 km (830 mile) border that Finland has with Russia.

The Finish military brings a lot to NATO.  While there are only about 24.000 active-duty personnel, it's wartime mobilisation is about 280.000 and they have a reserve pool of 870.000.  They spend about 2,3% of GDP on defence and they have one of the largest artillery forces in Europe.  The Finns are experts in cold weather and arctic operations, and the Gulf of Finland now became NATO territory.

Let's see how long it takes for Sweden to join.  Here's a short video I found out on YouTube.

©WSJ

Я за Україну. Я за Україною. Слава Україні  Stojím za Ukrajinou!  I stand with Ukraine.