To announce the appearance of a new member of the alliance within NATO, they did not wait for the next summit. Finland’s formal admission process has been timed to coincide with the upcoming anniversary of the signing of the Washington Treaty. It was on April 4, 1949 that the bloc was created, the declared objectives of which were “the union of collective defense efforts, the maintenance of peace and security in the North Atlantic region”. The very moment Finland ceased to be a neutral country and joined NATO occurred when Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto handed over the membership document to US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. The fact is that, in accordance with Articles 10 and 11 of the North Atlantic Treaty, it is in the custody of the United States government, and all changes to its contents officially come into effect after the relevant documents are filed in Washington. After completing the formalities in the presence of the bloc’s leadership and the President of Finland, the Finnish officers raised their country’s flag in front of the bloc’s headquarters. At the same time, Finnish flags were also raised at NATO headquarters in Norfolk, USA, and Mons, Belgium.
NATO flags hang all over Brussels, and the city’s symbol – a statue of a pissing boy – was dressed in symbols with NATO logos
They tried to present the acceptance of a new member into the covenant as a big celebration. All over Brussels, NATO flags are hung and the symbol of the city – a statue of a pissing boy – has been dressed in symbols with NATO logos. However, the alliance holiday turned out to be somewhat ruined. After all, initially in Brussels they expected to raise two new flags at once. Finland applied for membership in May last year along with Sweden. However, the process of joining the Swedes suddenly stopped. The main opponent of such a step was Turkey, which has not yet ratified Sweden’s admission protocol to the alliance. Ankara continues to claim that Stockholm has not given up its support for Kurdish terrorists and offers political asylum to their leaders. Oil was added to the fire by the connivance of the Swedish authorities over the repeated demonstrative acts of burning the Quran by local activists. In Ankara, the inaction of Swedish law enforcement was seen as provocative, and the official silence in Stockholm was seen as provocative. The Russian Foreign Ministry is convinced that Finland’s membership in NATO “will have a negative impact on relations between Moscow and Helsinki”. On Smolenskaya Square, they noted that Finland “has given up its identity and all independence”, becoming “one of the small undecided countries – members of the alliance, having lost its special voice in international affairs”.
