Turkey ratifies Finland’s NATO membership
Finland’s accession to the alliance will now be finalized by the US State Department and Helsinki.
ANKARA — Turkey’s parliament ratified Finland’s accession to NATO on Thursday, while Sweden’s bid to join the alliance is still blocked by Ankara and Budapest.
The measure passed unanimously with 276 votes in the parliament’s general assembly.
In a video message on Friday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg hailed the move. “Finland will formally join our alliance in the coming days. Their membership will make Finland safer and NATO stronger,” he said, adding, “We have seen the fastest ratification process in NATO’s modern history.”
Finland and Sweden were formally invited to the North Atlantic alliance in June following breaking their historical military nonalignment policy in face of the Russian invasion of Ukraine last year. Initially, Turkey gave its nod for them to become official invitees, but tabled a series of national security demands before ratifying their accession. NATO’s decision-making process requires consensus among all 30 member states.
