According to reports, a Kremlin spokesman said that Finland joining the NATO military alliance would be a “threat.”
“As we have said many times before, NATO expansion does not make the world more stable and secure,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this week after Finland’s top politicians announced their support for an application for NATO membership.
Peskov said he wasn’t sure what Russia’s response would be to the possible application.
“It will depend on what this expansion process will entail, how far and how close to our borders the military infrastructure will move,” Peskov said, according to CNN.
Meanwhile, NATO’s military alliance’s chief Jens Stoltenberg said Finland would be “warmly welcomed into NATO.”
“This is a sovereign decision by Finland, which NATO fully respects. Should Finland decide to apply, they would be warmly welcomed into NATO, and the accession process would be smooth and swift,” said Stoltenberg, according to his office.
“Finland is one of NATO’s closest partners, a mature democracy, a member of the European Union, and an important contributor to Euro-Atlantic security,” he added.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also chimed in on the announcement, saying he spoke to Finnish President Sauli Niinisto by phone this week. Zelensky wrote on Twitter that he told the president he “commended the readiness of Finland to apply for NATO membership.”
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto also spoke about the application this week, telling the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs that Finland would “strengthen the security and stability for the Baltic Sea region and north of Europe.
“From NATO’s perspective, Finland has solid democratic credentials that meet NATO’s membership criteria and has a strong and credible national defense that is interoperable with NATO,” he said.
A final decision to apply for NATO membership would require a vote in the Finnish parliament. According to reports, more than 75 percent of Finns support the joining of NATO.
The last country to join NATO was North Macedonia in 2020.
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Photo courtesy: ©GettyImages/Kutay Tanir
Amanda Casanova is a writer living in Dallas, Texas. She has covered news for ChristianHeadlines.com since 2014. She has also contributed to The Houston Chronicle, U.S. News and World Report and IBelieve.com. She blogs at The Migraine Runner.
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