JAKARTA - The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) will not deploy any troops in Finland, without the Helsinki government's approval, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Tuesday.
"This is Finland's decision. There will be no NATO troops in Finland without Finnish approval," Stoltenberg said, citing TASS April 4.
Stoltenberg further underlined that Finland will bring "forward defense industry" and "high-end capabilities" into the alliance.
He emphasized that after Finland joins the alliance, Finland will be protected by Article 5 of the Washington Agreement, which establishes the collective security of all NATO member states before military aggression.
He stated that Finland would receive "very strict security guarantees."
Previously, Finland officially became a NATO member on Tuesday, after Hungary and Turkey ratified the Helsinki app. Despite being delayed, the app process, which has been running for less than a year, made it the fastest membership process in NATO history, reported The National News.
Stoltenberg said Finland's membership would double the length of NATO's land border with Russia. This goes against Russian President Vladimir Putin's goal of weakening 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.
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