Majority of Parliament Agree Finland to Join NATO

NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. (Wikimedia Commons/US Department of State)

JAKARTA - The Finnish parliament on Wednesday unanimously voted in favor of Finland's bid to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the speaker of the parliament said.

Approval of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) agreements and Finland's accession was approved with 184 members of the 200-seat parliament voting in favor, seven against and one abstention.

In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Finland in May applied to join NATO, having until recently relied solely on its own armed forces to defend its 1,300-kilometre (800-mile) border directly adjacent to Russia.

Candidates for a new NATO member must be approved by all members of the existing Western military alliance. Finland itself is still waiting for support from Turkey and Hungary.

By adopting NATO's founding documents, Finland may first join neighboring Sweden, which also applied to join but has been held up by Turkey.

Separately, Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan said his country was ready to accept Finland into NATO, but accused Sweden of harboring people he viewed as members of terrorist groups.

Sweden is also still waiting for approval from Hungary, whose parliament started debating ratification on Wednesday and could hold a vote this month.

Meanwhile, NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg said last week he aims to have both Nordic nations as members in time for a summit scheduled for July.