Finland is set to join NATO following ratification of its membership by the Turkish government — the last holdout among the 30 nations in the military alliance.
The Nordic country and its neighbour Sweden each broke with decades of non-alignment by signaling last year that they wanted to join the alliance following Russia’s full invasion of Ukraine.
Their accession bids were ratified at the NATO leader’s summit in Madrid last June. Since then, member states have gone through their own processes of individually approving the requests. Ratification has to be unanimous among NATO members.
Both Finland and Sweden saw their bids held up by Turkey, which suggested the countries were too lenient toward groups that the government of President Recep Erdoğan considers terror organizations. To a lesser extent, Hungary also objected — but it moved forward with ratification on Monday.
Finland’s Ambassador to Canada Roy Eriksson said membership in NATO will deepen already important links between his country and Canada, particularly in the Arctic.
Until recently, he said, when you tilted a map of the Far North on its side, you saw NATO countries and “a big blob of Finland and Sweden.” Now, he said, there will be a solid front on the northern frontier.
“It actually means a lot for NATO planning because you get a lot more depth and the whole border … from the Arctic Sea to the Black Sea will be covered by NATO allies,” Eriksson told CBC News.
“And being an Arctic country like Canada, we do understand what challenges it means to be operational … in Arctic conditions. So I think we can exchange knowledge and know how to best survive in those harsh conditions.”
Eriksson told a panel discussion in Ottawa on Thursday that military cooperation between his country and Canada is already happening. Whenever Finland donates military equipment to Ukraine, it is flown on Canadian military transport planes, he said, because his country lacks strategic transport.
WATCH: Finland is cleared to join NATO
Finland’s Ambassador to Canada Roy Eriksson says although he is pleased with the news, he had hoped Sweden would join at the same time.
From a policy perspective, he said, Finland’s inclusion in NATO will also help strengthen the Arctic Council — the coalition of nations that border the Arctic region and hold regular meetings to promote environmental, social and economic stewardship of the Far North. Russia is a member of the council but has been suspended since the invasion of Ukraine.
Finland and Sweden submitted their NATO applications at the same time — but Turkey and Hungary still object to Sweden’s membership.
“We are very pleased that the ratification process has come to an end, but a bit sad, of course, because we would have hoped that Sweden would be joining at the same time,” said Eriksson.
“I’m very optimistic that they will join before the [next] NATO summit in Vilnius in July.”
The next step in Finland’s journey is for the country to send its acceptance document, signed by Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, to the U.S. State Department, where the records of NATO’s founding document, the Washington Treaty, are kept.
Once Finland’s membership acceptance arrives, the Nordic country officially becomes a full NATO member. Once that happens, Finland is covered by the alliance’s self defence clause, Article 5 — which states that an attack on one member is an attack on all.
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