As of this Tuesday, NATO welcomes the 31st Member State with the accession of Finland, less than a year after having formalized the application. Upon his arrival at the ceremony, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg highlighted the security guarantees that are now being given to the Scandinavian country.
Calling the day that also marks the 74th anniversary of the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty “historic” as the organization continues to grow its membership, Stoltenberg hailed what he sees as the best response to those seeking to weaken the alliance.
“It shows that when President Putin had as his declared objective that the invasion of Ukraine was to guarantee less NATO, less NATO on its borders, he wanted to close the doors of NATO, end NATO membership of any other European country, he is receiving the exact opposite,” he said.
Stoltenberg admits that the end of more than seven decades of neutrality in Finland “might, a few years ago, seem unthinkable.” For this reason, he does not hesitate to describe the day as “truly historic”, now that Finland is “a full member of our alliance”.
The Helsinki government will now have a place in the decisions of the Atlantic alliance, and the country will be involved in all the organization’s events. But Stoltenberg considers that there is an even more relevant fact.
“Finland will get a strong security guarantee: Article 5, our collective defense clause, all for one, will now apply to Finland,” he stressed.
With the 1,340 km of the Russo-Finnish border, the entry of the 31st Allied State almost triples the land contact between NATO and Russia. Jens Stoltenberg does not rule out a military presence in Finland, provided that the country’s authorities so request.
“It is Finland’s decision whether it would like to have [algum tipo de presença]. But there will be no NATO troops in Finland without the consent of Finland,” Stoltenberg said.
For now, the Helsinki government says “the first step is to establish membership” and assert itself as an “active member of NATO.” But that will be “a discussion for later.”
As the NATO Secretary General pointed out, the presence of NATO troops on the eastern flank already exists and has been strengthened, in all three branches of the armed forces.
“What we have in many countries are exercises, we have a naval, air and other presence… but we do not have a permanent base. And that has not been a problem, ”he stressed.
Portugal, for example, has stationed in Slovenia a contingent of some eight dozen Air Force personnel, which ensures surveillance in the Baltic Sea. This Tuesday, Portuguese pilots aboard F16 fighters intercepted Russian military planes in the Baltic Sea.
Source: TSF
