BRUSSELS, 4 Apr: Finland joined the NATO military alliance Tuesday, dealing a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a historic realignment of Europe\u2019s post-Cold War security landscape triggered by Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.
\nThe Nordic country\u2019s membership doubles Russia\u2019s border with the world\u2019s biggest security alliance. Finland had adopted neutrality after its defeat by the Soviets in World War II, but its leaders signaled they wanted to join NATO just months after Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine sent a shiver of fear through its neighbors.
\nThe move is a strategic and political setback for Putin, who has long complained about NATO\u2019s expansion toward Russia and partly used that as a justification for the invasion.
\n\u201cI\u2019m tempted to say this is maybe the one thing that we can thank Mr. Putin for because he once again here precipitated something he claims to want to prevent by Russia\u2019s aggression, causing many countries to believe that they have to do more to look out for their own defense and to make sure that they can deter possible Russian aggression going forward,\u201d U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said before accepting the documents that made Finland\u2019s membership official.
\nThe U.S. State Department is the repository of NATO texts concerning membership.
\nRussia warned it would be forced to take \u201cretaliatory measures\u201d to address what it called security threats created by Finland\u2019s membership. It had also warned it would bolster forces near Finland if NATO sends any additional troops or equipment to what is its 31st member country.
\nThe alliance says it poses no threat to Moscow.
\nAlarmed by Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine last year, Finland, which shares a 1,340 kilometer (832 mile) border with Russia, applied to join in May, setting aside years of military nonalign-ment to seek protection under the organization\u2019s security umbrella.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s a great day for Finland and an important day for NATO, too,\u201d said Finnish President Sauli Niinisto. \u201cRussia tried to create a sphere around them and, well, we are not a sphere. I\u2019m sure that Finns themselves feel more secure, that we are living in a more stable world.\u201d
\nNeighboring Sweden, which has avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, has also applied. But objections from NATO members Turkey and Hungary have delayed the process.
\nNiinisto said Finland\u2019s membership \u201cis not complete without that of Sweden. The persistent efforts for a rapid Swedish membership continue.\u201c
\nEarlier, Russia\u2019s Foreign Ministry said Moscow \u201cwill be forced to take military-technical and other retaliatory measures to counter the threats to our national security arising from Finland\u2019s accession to NATO.\u201d
\nIt said Finland\u2019s move marks \u201ca fundamental change in the situation in Northern Europe, which had previously been one of the most stable regions in the world.\u201d
\nKremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Finland\u2019s membership reflects the alliance\u2019s anti-Russian course and warned that Moscow will respond depending on what weapons NATO allies place there. But he also sought to play down the impact, noting that Russia has no territorial disputes with Finland.
\nIt\u2019s not clear what additional military resources Russia could send to the Finnish border. Moscow has deployed the bulk of its most capable military units to Ukraine.
\nNATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said no more troops would be sent to Finland unless it asked for help.
\nThe country is now protected by what Stoltenberg called NATO\u2019s \u201ciron-clad security guarantee,\u201d under which all member countries vow to come to the defense of any ally that comes under attack.
\nBut Stoltenberg refused to rule out the possibility of holding more military exercises there and said that NATO would not allow Russia\u2019s demands to dictate the organization\u2019s decisions.
\n\u201cWe are constantly assessing our posture, our presence. We have more exercises, we have more presence, also in the Nordic area,\u201d he said.
\nFinland\u2019s Parliament, meanwhile, said its website was hit with a so-called denial-of-service attack, which made the site hard to use, with many pages not loading and some functions not available.
\nA pro-Russian hacker group known as NoName057 (16) claimed responsibility, saying the attack was retaliation for Finland joining NATO. The claim could not be immediately verified.
\nThe hacker group, which has reportedly acted on Moscow\u2019s orders, has taken party in a slew of cyberattacks on the U.S. and its allies in the past. Finnish public broadcaster YLE said the same group hit the Parliament\u2019s site last year.
\nFinland\u2019s entry, marked with a flag-raising ceremony at NATO headquarters, falls on the organization\u2019s very own birthday, the 74th anniversary of the signing of its founding Washington Treaty on April 4, 1949. It also coincides with a meeting of the alliance\u2019s foreign ministers. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BRUSSELS, 4 Apr: Finland joined the NATO military alliance Tuesday, dealing a major blow to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a historic realignment of Europe\u2019s post-Cold War security landscape triggered by Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. The Nordic country\u2019s membership doubles Russia\u2019s border with the world\u2019s biggest security alliance. Finland had adopted neutrality after its defeat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-214281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214281\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}