Finland formally joins NATO, Russia calls NATO expansion a ‘direct threat’
China News Agency, Beijing, April 5th. Comprehensive news: On the afternoon of the 4th local time, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) held a ceremony for Finland’s accession to NATO at its headquarters in Brussels. Finland officially became the 31st member of NATO.
Earlier on the 4th, Finland submitted its documents to join NATO to the United States, the storage country for NATO documents. On the afternoon of the same day, Finland’s signing ceremony was held at the NATO headquarters in Brussels. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said that joining NATO is beneficial to Finland, the Nordic countries and NATO as a whole, and he also expressed his expectation for Sweden to join the treaty. Finnish President Niinisto said in a statement that Finland’s accession to NATO is not aimed at any country and will not change the basis of Finland’s foreign and security policy.
According to the Russian News Agency today, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Finland’s accession to the treaty will have a negative impact on its relations with Russia, and Russia will continue to regard NATO’s expansion as a direct threat to Russia’s national security interests. In addition, the Russian side also responded that “Russia will have to take countermeasures to deal with it.”
Archyde.com reported that Finland has adopted a military policy of non-alignment since World War II and has maintained friendly relations with neighboring Russia. Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has expanded eastward one after another, which has long been controversial.
According to the Finnish “Helsinki Times” report, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stated that NATO will not station troops in Finland without the consent of the Finnish government.
Finland and Sweden applied to join NATO last May. Currently, Türkiye and Hungary have not officially ratified Sweden’s NATO membership.