The Finnish executive is firmly determined to integrate NATO as quickly as possible, even if it means not waiting for its Swedish neighbour. The Parliament of Finland begins its final debate on Tuesday, February 28 on joining the military alliance, even before having obtained the last imperative yeses from Turkey and Hungary. With elections in sight on April 2 for the government of outgoing Prime Minister Sanna Marin, Helsinki wants to avoid any political vacuum so that it can jump on the NATO bandwagon.
Finland's 200-member parliament, the Eduskunta, is due to start debating the NATO membership bill on Tuesday, with a vote expected by Wednesday. Their debate coincides with the visit to Finland by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg for meetings with the main leaders of the Nordic country of 5.5 million inhabitants.
As in a preliminary vote last May, which resulted in a plebiscite of 188 votes in favor, the outcome of the parliamentary ballot is in no doubt, with almost unanimous support from the parties, including those who were still against the vote. 'NATO a year ago. Only a handful of far-left and far-right MPs are expected to vote against.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden decided to turn the page on their policy of military non-alignment in force since the 1990s, itself inherited from decades of forced or chosen neutrality, by applying to NATO mid-May 2022.
Twenty-eight of the thirty members of the alliance, including its American leader, have already ratified the entry of the two Nordic countries. There remains Hungary, known for its more ambiguous positions vis-à-vis Moscow and Turkey, which wants to mediate the conflict in Ukraine and settle old disputes with Sweden, mainly on the case of Kurdish militants living in the Nordic country. .
Finland has so far shown its willingness to join at the same time as Sweden. But Stockholm's major difficulties with Ankara, which culminated in January with a series of diplomatic incidents, have changed the situation. Even Jens Stoltenberg recognized at the beginning of February that the most important thing was not that the countries enter NATO together, but that their accession takes place as quickly as possible.
Turkey confirmed on Monday that it could separate Finland's ratification from that of Sweden. "We could separate the accession process of Sweden and Finland," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu said on Monday.
The adoption of the Finnish law does not mean that Helsinki will automatically enter after the Hungarian and Turkish ratifications. But it sets a clear timetable: after the adoption, Finnish President Sauli Niinistö has three months maximum to sign it in turn. The latter has already said that he will do so "upon adoption". “If there are practical reasons, I can wait…but not beyond the April 2 election. Then, in accordance with NATO practice, the instruments of accession must be sent to Washington "within a few weeks at most", explained Chancellor of Justice Tuomas Pöysti.
A majority of Finns (53%) want to join NATO without waiting for Sweden, according to a poll published in early February. Finland was Swedish until 1809, before becoming a Russian grand duchy until its independence in the Russian revolution of 1917. The Nordic country, subject to forced neutrality by Moscow after its war with the Soviet Union during of the Second World War, shares the longest European border with Russia, behind Ukraine.
Large fences will be installed from the spring on portions of the 1,340 kilometer line, as a result of tensions with Russia.
