Finland officially became the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday, marking an end to its decades-long military neutrality in the face of fears about the threat posed by Russia following its invasion of Ukraine a year earlier.
Finland, alongside Sweden, applied to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in May last year, seeking security against its powerful neighbor through NATO's collective defense guarantee.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has welcomed the imminent accession of Finland, saying, "It will be a good day for Finland's security, for Nordic security and for NATO as a whole."
The latest development came after Turkey became the last of NATO's 30 members to ratify the accession of Finland, which shares a 1,300-kilometer-long border with Russia.
Sweden's bid, however, has been kept on hold, as Turkey has been criticizing the country for refusing to extradite alleged terror suspects. Hungary, another NATO member, also has reservations about Sweden's entry.
The two Nordic countries joined the European Union in 1995 but had remained outside NATO to avoid provoking Russia, which has been against the trans-Atlantic alliance enlarging and moving closer to its borders.
But Russia's invasion of a non-NATO member, Ukraine, which began in February last year, has pushed them to reconsider their status and embrace a move that would change the European geopolitical landscape.
"When (Russian President Vladimir) Putin launched his brutal war of aggression against the people of Ukraine, he thought he could divide Europe and NATO. He was wrong," U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement welcoming Finland as a new member. "Today, we are more united than ever."
NATO held a celebration on Tuesday at its headquarters in Brussels to welcome Finland's entry.
Prior to Finland, North Macedonia was the most recent country to be accepted into the alliance in March 2020.
