On Thursday, Turkey ratified Finland’s membership of NATO, making it the 31st member nation of the US-led defense alliance. The vote was unanimously backed by Turkish lawmakers, and came two weeks after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan publicly supported Finland’s bid to join NATO. With Turkey’s ratification, Finland is well on its way to officially becoming a member of NATO.
Before becoming a member, Finland must complete a few technical steps, which officials expect to be completed as early as next week. Finland and its neighbor Sweden decided to join NATO last May after Russia launched a ‘special military operation’ against Ukraine. Although their applications were accepted at the June alliance summit, the bids needed to be ratified by all member nations’ parliaments, which was stalled due to Hungary and Turkey. However, the Hungarian Parliament ratified Finland’s membership on March 27th.
Finland and Sweden had to break up their bids to avoid delays. Turkey, owing to long-standing disputes, reportedly put up stiff resistance to Sweden’s candidacy. Nonetheless, Sweden still hopes to join the military alliance in time for the Vilnius summit scheduled for July.
With Finland’s ratification, NATO’s expansion is expected to continue, which may change the power dynamics in the region.
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