Stoltenberg on joining NATO: “We will hoist the Finnish flag”

NATO General Secretary Jens Stoltenberg is firmly convinced that Finland will officially join the alliance this Tuesday as the 31st member. “We will hoist the Finnish flag here for the first time at NATO headquarters,” he said Monday ahead of the meeting of member states’ foreign ministers, which begins on Tuesday. “It will be a good day for Finland’s security, for Nordic security and for NATO as a whole.”

At the end of last week, Turkey was the last country to complete the ratification of Finland’s accession. While diplomats were unsure whether the instrument would be deposited in Washington in time, the Secretary-General announced that it would be done on Tuesday and the Finnish flag would be raised at 3:30 p.m.

Stoltenberg asserted that this would also make Sweden safer, although it cannot join with its neighbor, as had been planned for a long time. It is a misperception that Sweden is left behind alone. Since the fundamental decision to expand the alliance in July last year, the country has been integrated into its military structures and planning process. It is inconceivable that it could be threatened or attacked “without NATO reacting to it”.

“Moscow does not decide who becomes a member”

Stoltenberg reiterated his assessment that Stockholm had met all the conditions agreed with Turkey. NATO hopes that Sweden can join at the Vilnius summit in mid-July after the Turkish elections in May.

Stoltenberg assessed Finland’s forthcoming admission as a sign that “every nation has the right to choose its own path” and “it is not for Moscow to decide who becomes a member of NATO”. On Tuesday, the alliance’s foreign ministers also want to intensify their political relations with Ukraine, which was promised accession in 2008.

For the first time since 2017, the NATO-Ukraine Commission will meet again at ministerial level. Hungary had previously blocked this because of a dispute over minority rights, but the Secretary-General overruled it. Budapest wants to address its concerns at the meeting. Stoltenberg expressed the expectation that a multi-year program would be launched to strengthen Ukraine’s institution building, fight against corruption and bring it closer to Western military standards. When the war Russia started is over, “we will have to put in place arrangements for Ukraine to repel future aggression,” he said.

In the short term, the member states want to help the country with additional equipment, a package worth 500 million euros is being sought. So far, however, less than half of the sum has been collected, Germany has pledged 40 million euros. NATO as an organization does not supply deadly weapons. That is left to the individual members who coordinate through the Ramstein format.