Finnish President Sauli Niinistö signed the laws on the country’s accession to NATO at a ceremony at the Government Palace. It is reported by RBC with reference to the Finnish media.
“Here they are,” Niinistö told reporters after signing the documents, after which he immediately left the press room.
On March 1, the decision to join the North Atlantic Alliance was finally approved by the Finnish Parliament. 184 deputies voted for it, 7 against.
Finland and Sweden jointly applied to join NATO last May. Accession must be approved by all 30 member countries of the alliance.
Turkey, which initially requested Stockholm and Helsinki to extradite members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), banned by the Turkish authorities, has already started the procedure in parliament for the ratification of Finland’s application.
In early March, the Hungarian parliament stated that they had not yet decided on the approval of the decision on new NATO members. Prime Minister Viktor Orban initially promised to approve the applications of both countries, but later reported skepticism about this. He noted that within the framework of NATO, Finland would have “more than a thousand kilometers of direct contact” with Russia. “Looking at the Ukrainian situation, this military potential is high, then you definitely need to think about whether this is good,” Orban said.
Membership in NATO on the eve was approved by the Swedish parliament, but the country faced difficulties on the issue of joining the alliance because of relations with Turkey.
Source: Rosbalt
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