Balkans | Finland officially becomes the thirty-first member of NATO

Finland joined the alliance as the 31st NATO member after Turkey handed over the document confirming Finland’s membership in NATO to the United States, guardian of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken met within the framework of the foreign ministers’ meeting held at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

During the meeting, Turkey handed over a document confirming Finland’s NATO membership to the United States, the custodian of the 1949 North Atlantic Treaty.

Cavusoglu tweeted about the meeting, “We discussed our relations with the US Secretary of State. We handed over Finland’s ratification of joining NATO to the United States, which has kept its membership documents in accordance with the Treaty establishing NATO.” Use phrases.

Later, he met NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto.

In his speech at the same time, Blinken said he was pleased to announce that Turkey had handed him the instrument of ratification on behalf of the United States.

Haavisto also sent Blinken his country’s approval document from Turkey to join NATO.

Stoltenberg on this subject, “So we can declare Finland the 31st member of NATO.” He said.

Membership process in Finland

Finland, along with Sweden, applied for NATO membership on May 18, 2022.

At the Madrid Summit held on June 28-30, 2022, a tripartite memorandum was signed between Turkey, Finland and Sweden. The two countries were invited to join NATO at the summit.

After the summit, most of the NATO countries started the process of approving the membership of the two countries. 20 NATO countries completed the ratification process in their parliaments in July, 4 in August, and 4 in September.

Finally, on March 27, the Hungarian Parliament approved Finland’s membership. Approval was also obtained in the Turkish Grand National Assembly on March 30. After completing the formalities, Finland officially became a member of the alliance on April 4, 2023, the 74th anniversary of the founding of NATO.

Thus, Finland’s NATO membership process was completed in less than a year, making it one of the fastest-growing membership processes in the alliance’s 74-year history.

The ninth enlargement of NATO

After the open-door policy, NATO expanded for the ninth time after leaving 74 years behind. It was founded in 1949 and had 12 members, before the coalition was the 31st member.

Turkey and Greece joined NATO in 1952, which was established with the signatures of the United States of America, Belgium, England, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Iceland, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway and Portugal.

Germany joined NATO in 1955 and Spain in 1982, while the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland joined the alliance in 1999.

Enlargement in 2004 included Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia, while Albania and Croatia became NATO members in 2009, Montenegro in 2017, and North Macedonia in 2020.