BUDAPEST: The Hungarian parliament has ratified Finland’s NATO membership today following months of diplomatically charged postponement. A large majority of legislators — 182 votes for versus 6 against – endorsed the accord of the Nordic country into the NATO. The recent development means that twenty nine out of 30 NATO member countries have approved Finland’s accession, with the last — Ankara’s expected to also approve in upcoming days. Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said, “ Thank you for the verdict with clear numbers!”.
Unkari on ratifioinut Suomen Nato-jäsenyyden. Kiitos selvin luvuin tehdystä päätöksestä! Suomen ja Ruotsin Nato-jäsenyydet vahvistavat koko liittokunnan turvallisuutta. On kaikkien etu, että myös Ruotsi on Naton jäsen ennen Vilnan huippukokousta.
— Sanna Marin (@MarinSanna) March 27, 2023
NATO’s extension into Finland — a country border with Russia will roughly increase the length of the alliance’s current border with its Cold War-era opponent. Finland had initially wanted to join with Sweden. Prime Minister Sanna Marin said that the NATO membership of Sweden and Finland will further strengthen the security of the Alliance. She added that it is in the interest of everyone that Sweden also becomes a member of the alliance before the summit of Vilnius.
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Stockholm and Helsinki also ended decades of military non-alignment and took decision to join the defense alliance NATO in the wake of Moscow’s invasion of Kyiv. The two countries applications were accepted by June 2022 NATO summit but the bids still required to be approved by all member of the alliance.
