20 May 2024,   23:14
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Finland to join NATO on Tuesday, military alliance’s chief says

Finland will become the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg says.

“This is a historic week”, - Stoltenberg told reporters on the eve of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels. “From tomorrow, Finland will be a full member of the alliance”.

He said he hopes Sweden, who applied for membership at the same time as Finland, will also be able to join NATO in the coming months.

The former Norwegian prime minister said that on Tuesday afternoon that “we will raise the Finnish flag for the first time here at the NATO headquarters. It will be a good day for Finland’s security, for Nordic security and for NATO as a whole”.

Stoltenberg said Turkey, the last NATO country to have ratified Finland’s membership, will hand its official texts to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday. Stoltenberg said he would then invite Finland to do the same.

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