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Finnish Parliament approves NATO membership application

Finland’s parliament on Tuesday approved a proposal to apply for membership of the NATO military alliance with 188 votes in favor and 8 against, Parliament Speaker Matti Vanhanen said.

The historically militarily neutral country changed its stance after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Finland and Russia share more than 1,300 kilometers of borders.

Sweden also signed a document on Tuesday formalizing its request to join the military alliance.

What comes next?

NATO has what it calls an “open-door policy” for new members – any European country can apply for membership, as long as it meets certain criteria and all existing members agree.

Turkey said on Monday (16) that it will vote against the two nations joining the bloc. As the vote has not yet taken place, there will be a process until then.

A country does not technically “candidate” to join; Article 10 of the organization’s founding treaty states that once a nation has expressed an interest, existing member states “may, by unanimous agreement, invite any other European state in a position to promote the principles of the Treaty to accede”.

NATO diplomats explained to Reuters that ratification of new members could take a year, as the legislatures of all 30 current members must approve new candidates.

Both Finland and Sweden already meet many of the membership requirements, which include having a functioning democratic political system based on a market economy; treat minority populations fairly, committing to resolving conflicts peacefully; the ability and willingness to make a military contribution to NATO operations; and commit to democratic civil-military relations and institutions.

what is nato

NATO is, above all, a military alliance made between countries in North America and Europe that was created from the escalation of the Cold War. The organization’s main headquarters are in Brussels, Belgium.

Led by the United States, the main objective of the alliance at the time of its creation was to protect the countries of Western Europe from the expansion of the Soviet Union and to combat the spread of communism after the Second World War.

The North Atlantic Treaty was signed on April 4, 1949 by 12 founding countries, which included the US, Canada, UK, France and eight other European nations. Early on, the members agreed to help each other in the event of an armed attack against any state that was part of the alliance.

Over time, NATO has grown and now has 30 members. In alphabetical order they are: Albania, Germany, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Denmark, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, United States, Estonia, France, Greece, Netherlands, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia North, Montenegro, Norway, Poland, Portugal, United Kingdom, Czech Republic, Romania and Turkey.

Source: CNN Brasil

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