The World Briefly

April 05, 2023

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Finland

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Finland became NATO’s 31st member Tuesday, a historic move that comes amid the ongoing war in Ukraine that revitalized the relevance of the defense alliance, the Washington Post reported.

Finnish membership will now double NATO’s land border with Russia, adding more than 800 miles and boosting the alliance’s presence in the Baltic Sea, as well as the Arctic.

The addition also underscores a notable shift in Finnish policy, which previously insisted during the Cold War that it was safer to remain outside of NATO amid concerns over the looming presence of the then-Soviet Union.

That belief changed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year – a conflict that some argue sourced from the Kremlin’s fears of NATO expansion.

Soon after the start of the invasion, Finland and Sweden applied for NATO membership as both countries assessed that joining the alliance would be the best way of shielding themselves from potential Russian aggression.

But all current members must approve membership applications, and while Finland succeeded, Sweden’s membership is still facing resistance from NATO members Turkey and Hungary.

Following Finland’s newly acquired membership, Russian officials warned that Moscow will closely monitor NATO’s new activity in Finland, adding that “measures will be taken.”

Finland’s membership follows Finnish elections on Sunday, which saw the center-left Social Democratic party of Prime Minister Sanna Marin win 19.9 percent of the vote, narrowly losing its bid to stay in power, NPR wrote.

The center-right National Coalition Party (NCP) of former Finance Minister Petteri Orpo won 20.8 percent of the vote, while the right-wing populist party, the Finns, secured 20.1 percent, with the NCP now haggling to form a coalition.

All three parties however supported the move to join NATO.

This story originally appeared in the April 05, 2023 newsletter, The Revolution Playbook.