Finland to decide on NATO membership 'within weeks'

Attempting to join NATO would almost certainly be seen as a provocation by Moscow, for whom NATO's expansion on its borders has been a prime security grievance.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin gives a press conference with the Swedish Prime Minister prior to a meeting on whether to seek NATO membership, in Stockholm, Sweden, on April 13, 2022. | Photo Credit: AFP

Rattled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland’s Prime Minister said on Wednesday the Nordic nation would decide whether to apply for NATO membership “within weeks”, despite the risk of infuriating Moscow.

Helsinki’s Parliament will next week open a debate about joining the Western alliance after the Ukraine war sparked a dramatic U-turn in public and political opinion in Finland and neighbouring Sweden over long-held policies of military non-alignment.

Attempting to join NATO would almost certainly be seen as a provocation by Moscow, for whom NATO’s expansion on its borders has been a prime security grievance.

But Prime Minister Sanna Marin said Finland would now decide quickly on whether to apply for membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

“I think it will happen quite fast. Within weeks, not within months,” Ms. Marin told a Stockholm press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson.

Sweden is also discussing NATO membership following Russia’s February 24 invasion