Finland has become the 31st member of NATO after its foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, signed an accession document and handed it to the US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, at a ceremony in Brussels, writes The Guardian.

The handover marks the formal accession of Russia’s western neighbour to the world’s largest military alliance, completing an accelerated application process launched last May, when Finland and neighbouring Sweden abandoned decades of military nonalignment to seek security as NATO members after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“President Putin had as a declared goal of the invasion of Ukraine to get less NATO. He is getting exactly the opposite. Finland today, and soon also Sweden will become a full-fledged member of the alliance. Finland’s membership removes the room for miscalculation in Moscow about NATO’s readiness to protect Finland”, - the alliance’s secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, said.