The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine drives Helsinki into NATO. Parliament debates the inclusion before the final vote is taken. In order to protect themselves against the aggressive neighbor Moscow, the Finns also rely on border security.
Against the background of the Ukraine war, the NATO accession candidate Finland has started building a 200 km long and three meter high fence on the border with Russia. After clearing the forest, road construction and the actual fence installation should start in March, as the Finnish border guard said on .
According to the border guard, the first section of the fence begins in Imatra in the south-east of the country and extends over three kilometers. It should therefore be completed by the end of June. Another 70 kilometers of fence are to be erected by 2025. In total, Finland wants to strengthen around 200 kilometers of its 1,300-kilometer border with Russia and plans to cost around 380 million euros for this.
The fence, three meters high, is to be fitted with barbed wire and, in some areas, night vision cameras, lights and loudspeakers. Currently, Finland's border is secured by simple wooden fences. Concerned that Moscow might use migrants as a means of exerting political pressure, however, parliament passed amendments to its border protection law in July that make it easier to strengthen border barriers.
The Finnish-Russian border has "worked well in the past," Brigadier General Jari Tolppanen told the AFP news agency in November. But the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine has "fundamentally" changed the security situation. A border fence is now "essential" to prevent large-scale illegal entry from Russia.
In September, numerous Russian nationals came to Finland after Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered partial mobilization for deployment in Ukraine. In May, Finland and Sweden gave up their decades-long military non-alignment following the Russian attack on Ukraine and applied to join NATO. The government in Moscow then warned of "far-reaching consequences".
The Finnish parliament has now started debating a law on the country's NATO accession. A vote on the law by which Finland accepts the terms of the NATO treaty is expected on Wednesday. The approval of the deputies is certain. Helsinki would thus have cleared all domestic political hurdles to joining NATO even before the member states Hungary and Turkey voted yes.
Turkey has so far blocked the admission of the two Nordic countries, with Ankara demanding a tougher stance against Kurdish activists, whom the Turkish authorities consider "terrorists", in particular from Stockholm. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday that Ankara viewed Finland's proposal positively. "We could separate Sweden's and Finland's admission process," he affirmed.
According to Finland, it would prefer joint accession with Sweden. However, the new law leads observers to assume that, in case of doubt, Helsinki would push the accession process forward on its own. Should the law pass as expected, the Finnish President has three months to sign it. After that, government official Tuomas Pöysti said there was "a couple of weeks at most" before accession had to take place.
Finland's President Sauli Niinisto has announced that he will sign the law "as soon as it has been approved by Parliament". For "practical reasons" he could wait, "but not until after the elections". Finland's parliamentary elections will take place on April 2nd. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said during a visit to Finland that it was time to "welcome Finland and Sweden as members". Both have kept the promises they made at a meeting with Turkey in Madrid in June, emphasized Stoltenberg.
