Finland

The statement by the president and prime minister comes a day after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson visited both Finland and Sweden to sign a military ...

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Sauli Niinisto and Sanna Marin make call after support in country for move trebles since Ukraine war.

Finland’s foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, told the European parliament on Thursday that accession to Nato would strengthen security in the region. It has only been invoked once in the organisation’s history, in response to the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks. Nordic media have previously said the two countries were likely to submit a joint application. Finland must apply for Nato membership as a matter of urgency.” “History being made by our northern neighbours,” she tweeted. A positive decision would then be presented to parliament for approval early next week.

Finland is virtually certain to seek NATO membership, with neighbouring Sweden expected to decide on joining the military alliance in the coming days.

The UK pledged on Wednesday to come to the aid of Sweden and Finland if the two Nordic nations came under attack. Previously, the Kremlin had warned of "military and political repercussions" if Sweden and Finland decide to join NATO. Finland's president and prime minister say they're in favour of applying for NATO membership, paving the way for the alliance to expand amid Russia's war in Ukraine.

Russia called Finland's move to join NATO a "direct threat", adding there would be retaliatory steps.

I think we are seeing countries taking steps to ensure that they are protected and working more closely with other like-minded democratic countries." And we support 100% any country's democratic wish to join. "Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay." Neighbouring Sweden is expected to decide on joining NATO in the coming days.Last month, Mr Niinisto - who heads foreign policy in the country in co-operation with the government - told newspaper Ilta-Sanomat: "If it happens as it looks likely that Finland and Sweden will join (NATO), then it will create a new kind of North for us, one that is responsible, stable and strong." Responding to Finland's announcement this morning, the Kremlin said that the move to join NATO will not help stability and security in Europe, adding it will be "definitely" a threat to Russia and it would be forced to take retaliatory steps. Finland's president has said the country needs to apply to NATO "without delay", prompting Russia to warn of a "response".

Russia will respond to Finland joining NATO with “military-technical” retaliatory measures, Moscow warned Thursday. “Finland's accession to NATO will cause ...

“Finland’s accession to NATO will cause serious damage to bilateral Russian-Finnish relations,” the Russian foreign ministry wrote in a statement. “Finland’s accession to NATO certainly threatens Russia’s security, and will entail Russia elaborating measures to ensure its security,” Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said at a press conference Thursday, according to Russia’s state-owned RIA news agency. “Russia will be forced to take retaliatory steps, both of a military-technical and other nature, in order to stop the threats to its national security that arise in this regard,” the Russian foreign ministry said.

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Finland must apply to join the NATO military alliance "without delay", despite Russia ...

Baltics [are] about to get safer," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said. NATO allies expect Finland and Sweden to apply to join the alliance in the coming days and will grant membership quickly, five diplomats and officials told Reuters ahead of the Finnish announcement. Finland must apply to join the NATO military alliance "without delay", Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Thursday, a major policy shift triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Finnish leaders have announced their belief that Finland should join NATO because of Russia's war in Ukraine. Sweden could soon follow suit.

Sweden too is ramping up its military budget and expects to reach the target by 2028. Most importantly, they already meet NATO’s membership criteria, on functioning democracies, good neighborly relations, clear borders and armed forces that are in lock-step with the allies. The NATO average was estimated at 1.6% last year. It now stands at over 70%. The two are NATO’s closest partners but maintaining good ties with Russia has been an important part of their foreign policy, particularly for Finland. No doubt, it will also anger their large neighbor Russia, which blames, at least in part, its war in Ukraine on NATO’s continued expansion closer to its borders. The Kremlin said Thursday that it certainly won’t improve European security.

Not that Finland necessarily needed such a reminder; the then-Soviet Union invaded Finland about 80 years ago. But that was before Russia had nuclear weapons ...

With Finland and Sweden, the size of NATO countries is only 1.4 times the size of Russia in its entirety. One of the requirements of NATO membership is that nations spend a certain percentage of GDP on their military. When considering the size of the standing military for each country, the ratio is smaller. NATO is not contiguous, so land area is not a particularly useful metric, but aggregating the size of NATO countries relative to Russia is instructive. This doesn’t inherently make war more likely, but Finland’s shift to the West is the sort of change that Russia’s been hoping to prevent. The expansion of NATO over time has been toward Russia’s western edge, with the collapse of the Soviet Union 30 years ago prompting a number of former Soviet states and Warsaw Pact countries to seek and gain membership in the alliance.

Finaland and Sweden's decision to abandon the neutrality they maintained throughout the Cold War would be one of the biggest shifts in European security in ...

Reuters journalists have confirmed that Ukraine is now in control of territory stretching to the banks of the Siverskiy Donets River, around 40 kilometres east of Kharkiv. To the north, the Ukrainians have been pushing towards the Russian border. Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Finland in particular has centuries of uneasy history in Russia’s shadow. Moscow regards that as a threat to its security. Moscow called Finland’s announcement a direct threat to Russia, and threatened retaliation, including unspecified “military-technical” measures. French President Emmanuel Macron said he fully supported Finland’s choice to join the alliance.

HELSINKI — Nordic governments have set about deepening regional defense cooperation against the backdrop of the very real expectation that non-aligned ...

We are in the process of deepening our operational cooperation that will enable us to improve our interoperability, deterrence and territorial defense,” the statement said. These are some of the benefits of NATO membership if we decide to join,” said Hultqvist. “The Prime Minister and President of Finland have sent a clear message. We hope that the steps at a national level that are still needed to make this decision possible will be taken rapidly over coming days,” the joint statement continued. “Now that the moment of decision-making is near, we state our shared views. Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin issued a joint announcement on Thursday backing NATO membership.

Finland's President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin Thursday expressed their approval for joining NATO, a move that would complete a major ...

Russia’s giant state-owned Gazprom said gas flowing to Europe through Ukraine was down 25% from the day before. Kherson is a Black Sea port with a population of about 300,000 and provides access to fresh water for neighboring Crimea. Russian forces captured it early in the war. The European Union, as part of its announced effort to punish Russia for its 11-week invasion of Ukraine, is looking to end its considerable reliance on Russian energy to heat homes and fuel industries. “Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay. The leaders said they came to their decision after allowing time for Finland’s Parliament and the public to consider the matter, and to consult with NATO and neighboring Sweden. Officials in Sweden are expected to consider their own possible NATO application in the coming days. “NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s security.

Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine has catalysed the most significant shift in the security posture of northern Europe for decades.

“We can help defend the whole of the Baltic Sea, which covers Norway, Denmark, Germany and Poland as well as the three Baltic states. A recent poll for Yle, Finland’s national broadcaster, found that support for membership of the alliance among Finns has soared to 76 per cent in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine, with just 12 per cent opposed. The expansion of Nato’s border with Russia may raise the chances of accidental or intentional escalation between the two powers. A third of the adult population – about 900,000 people – are reservists. As a result, during the Cold War, Finland maintained a stance of official neutrality, pledging not to take any action that could be interpreted as threatening the security of the Soviet Union. In 2016, a previous poll found that just 22 per cent would support joining the alliance, while 55 per cent were opposed.

Russia warns the decision by Finland to move towards joining NATO will force it to take retaliatory "military technical" steps.

Moscow called Finland's announcement a direct threat to Russia, and threatened retaliation, including unspecified "military technical" measures. French President Emmanuel Macron said he fully supported Finland's choice to join the alliance. Look at the mirror." In the latest advance, they announced on Wednesday the recapture of the village of Pytomnyk, halfway to the frontier. Ukraine has spent 245.1 billion hryvnia (A$12.1 billion) on fighting the Russian invasion, the finance minister said on Thursday, providing a glimpse into the scale of the spending on everything from buying and repairing weapons to emergency support for internally displaced people. In Geneva, the UN Human Rights Council passed a resolution to set up an investigation into possible war crimes by Russian troops in the Kyiv area and beyond before they were driven out at the end of March, a move that Russia said amounted to political score-settling.