Petteri Orpo, a calmly talking, bespectacled Finnish conservative leader, has won Finland’s first general election since all NATO states approved its membership of the military alliance. However, the outcome was a setback for the incumbent Prime Minister Sanna Marin, elected several years ago as the world’s youngest government leader.
Finland will join the NATO military alliance after Turkey’s parliament voted to approve its application but delayed Sweden’s bid to join the military alliance.
Finland is now ready to drop plans for a partnered NATO entry with Sweden as Helsinki is unwilling to stay out of the military alliance for longer than necessary.
Finland announced Monday that it would not seek to enter NATO alone at this time and still plans to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization only at the same time as its main military partner, Sweden, hopefully by July this year, Reuters reports.
Finland says it may join the NATO military alliance without Sweden as Turkey blocks Swedish membership, citing a Koran burning by far-right activists and pro-Kurdish protests in Stockholm.
Hungary’s controversial prime minister says his country will only consider ratifying NATO military alliance membership of Finland and Sweden next year.
It’s shaping up to be far less imposing than the Berlin Wall and not nearly as politically divisive as President Trump’s coveted barrier between the U.S. and Mexico, but Finland’s planned border fence with Russia looks to be a major geopolitical statement.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that Sweden and Finland were ready to join the military alliance.
U.S. President Joe Biden has signed ratification documents endorsing bids by Finland and Sweden to join NATO.
The US Senate on Wednesday voted 95-1 in overwhelming approval of the applications by Sweden and Finland to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Axios reports. NATO was established in 1949 by 12 countries, including the US, Canada, Italy, and France, to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.
The Senate on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly to accept the application of Sweden and Finland to join NATO amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
In the East, however, security and economy-focused blocs led by Beijing and Moscow are looking to take on new members of their own, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, two influential Middle Eastern rivals whose interest in shoring up cooperation on this new front could have a significant impact on global geopolitical balance.
As Italy continues to experience its worst drought in 70 years, southern European countries Portugal and Spain are among others battling extreme heat and water shortages, DW reports.
The Biden administration threw its support on Wednesday behind the potential sale of U.S. F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, a day after Ankara lifted a veto of NATO membership for Finland and Sweden.
The world moved back to the Cold War on Wednesday, with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg saying Moscow’s war in Ukraine presents the “biggest challenge” in the alliance’s history.
An evangelical lawmaker in Finland who was acquitted by a lower court on “hate speech” charges for sharing her views on homosexuality now faces an appeals court hearing after the state prosecutor insisted on continuing the case, the Washington Times reports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin woke up Wednesday with a nearly expanded NATO at Russia’s borders after Turkey lifted its objections for Finland and Sweden to join the defense bloc.
Turkey on Tuesday dropped its opposition to Sweden and Finland joining NATO, seemingly clearing the way for the two nations to enter the trans-Atlantic alliance and delivering a major boost to Western solidarity amid the Russia-Ukraine war.
