Record History Of Completion Of Fastest Membership Ratifications, Finland Officially Joins NATO Today

JAKARTA - Finland will officially become the 31st member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) on Tuesday, the country's presidential office announced Monday.

This follows Turkey's approval of Helsinki's membership offer on Thursday last week, the last obstacle to joining the alliance.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg praised the decision.

"We will fly the Finnish flag for the first time here, at NATO headquarters. This will be a good day for Finnish security, for Nordic security and for Nato as a whole," he said in Brussels, Belgium, as reported by The National News March 3.

This news comes a day after the Finnish general election, in which Prime Minister Sanna Marin lost. However, NATO's access was widely supported by Finnish parties and President Sauli Niinisto has led the final stages of negotiations with Turkey.

The flag-raising ceremony on Tuesday afternoon will take place after Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto handed over official access documents to United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is the 'guard' of the NATO establishment agreement.

Stoltenberg further said Finland's membership would double the length of NATO's land border with Russia.

This goes against Russian President Vladimir Putin's goal to weaken the alliance, he said.

"(President) Putin fought against Ukraine with a clear aim to reduce the number of NATO members," Stoltenberg said.

"He got the opposite thing," he said.

In response, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said Russia would strengthen its military capacity in its western and northwestern regions, state-owned RIA news agency reported.

It is known, after decades of not joining, Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO last year, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

While most members supported the offer and accepted their app in June last year, except for Turkey and Hungary blocking the required ratification process of all members.

However, the completion of the ratification in less than a year still makes it the fastest membership process in the history of this alliance.

Finland's accession process is smoother than Sweden, which is still negotiating with Turkey.

Last month, Turkey said Helsinki had guaranteed that it would take action against groups Ankara considers a Finnish-based terrorist.