Finland has announced its intention to join NATO. This is stated in a joint statement by President Sauli Niiniste and Prime Minister Sanna Marin.

“NATO membership will strengthen Finland’s security. As a NATO member, Finland will strengthen the entire defense alliance. Finland must immediately apply for NATO membership,” the statement said.

The country’s leaders expressed hope that all the procedures at the national level required for NATO membership would be completed within a few days.

Niiniste and Marin said in a statement that the decision was preceded by lengthy discussions at the level of parliament, society, negotiations with NATO and Sweden, which also plans to join the alliance.

The world media expects that Sweden intends to make the same statement in the coming days, and next week the two countries will send formal requests to join NATO.

According to NATO officials, the accession of Finland and Sweden may be approved in the coming weeks. However, the year allotted for the ratification of this decision by the parliaments of all the bloc countries may take another minute for them to become fully and officially members of the alliance.

Sweden has been a neutral country for two centuries, and Finland for almost 80 years, and before Russia’s attack on Ukraine, most citizens of both countries were against joining the military blocs. But after February 24, the picture changed dramatically. Now, according to the latest poll, 76% of Finns are in favor of joining NATO. Against – only 12%.

The United Kingdom, the United States and other NATO countries have pledged security guarantees to Sweden and Finland for the period from application to formal accession.

This week, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson signed with both countries declarations of mutual assistance in the event of an attack.

Speaking after talks with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson, Johnson said the sad irony was because, he said, EU countries were now forced to discuss how to strengthen their defenses against “the empty vanity of the 21st century tyrant”.

“When Europe celebrated Victory Day in 1945, a victory that was partly secured by the heroism of the Russian people, we hoped that peace on our continent would be preserved,” he said.

Putin’s bloodthirsty campaign against a sovereign nation has put an end to that hope and created a new reality that Europe has had to face, he added.

According to James Landale, a BBC diplomatic correspondent, these are not guarantees given to each other by NATO countries, but a political declaration that Britain and the Scandinavian countries will come to the aid of each other’s armed forces if attacked.

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