Finland to officially join NATO on Tuesday
The country, which shares a border with Russia, applied to join the military alliance in the wake of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine last year.

It is the first enlargement of NATO since North Macedonia joined the alliance in 2020.

The announcement was confirmed by NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, who said the move will make Finland and other members safer.

“We will raise the Finnish flag for the first time here at NATO headquarters. It will be a good day for Finland’s security, for Nordic security and for NATO as a whole,” he told reporters in Brussels.

He also expressed his hope that Finland’s neighbour Sweden will be permitted to join in the coming months.

Russia immediately responded to the announcement, with an official telling state-owned news agency RIA that the country would bolster forces along its 1,300km (810 mile) border with Finland.

‘We will strengthen our military potential in the western and northwestern direction,” Russia’s deputy foreign minister Alexander Grushko told RIA.

“In the event that the forces and resources of other NATO members are deployed in Finland, we will take additional steps to reliably ensure Russia’s military security.”

Finnish president Sauli Niinistö, defence minister Antti Kaikkonen and foreign minister, Pekka Haavisto, are now due to attend a ceremony to mark Finland’s membership of NATO.

“It is a historic moment for us. For Finland, the most important objective at the meeting will be to emphasize NATO’s support to Ukraine as Russia continues its illegal aggression,” Mr Haavisto said in a statement.

“We seek to promote stability and security throughout the Euro-Atlantic region.”

Turkey was the last of NATO’s 30 members to accept Finland’s application – which ends the country’s decades of military non-alignment.

Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier in March that Finland had secured his country’s blessing after taking concrete steps to keep promises to crack down on groups seen by Ankara as terrorists, and to free up defence exports.

However, Turkey is still blocking the approval of Sweden joining NATO, with the government saying Stockholm has so far failed to sufficiently crackdown on similar groups.