THUNDER BAY – As Russia's invasion of Ukraine remains ongoing, Finland’s President and Prime Minister said on Thursday that the country must apply to join the NATO military alliance “without delay” as a precautionary action.
After decades of staying out of military alliances and their rocky history with Russia, Finland's parliament will debate and then vote on whether the country should take the leap and apply to join the NATO military service early next week, with a majority of lawmakers having already signalled their support for membership.
Joining NATO would mean that if Russia were to invade Finland, every NATO country will take that as a declaration of war.
Russia has responded by saying that they view this move as a threat, but Thunder Bay's honorary Finnish consul Pasi Pinta says that Russian President Vladimir Putin has brought this upon himself.
"Dictating to neighbouring countries and limiting their sovereignty, that Finland is absolutely against, and needs to, wants to, and will make its own decisions. Russia is making its own stories about that, as we know, and can very much expect all kinds of rhetoric," said Pinta.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has left the Finnish population feeling concerned, as the country has historically fought two wars with Russia, and Pinta says that joining NATO is a decision that Finnish people are "overwhelmingly behind."
"It's an excellent defensive alliance that is there to prevent wars from happening in the first place. Work from the perspective that the best weapons are weapons that are never used and have a defensive alliance that will hopefully keep wars away, rather than bring them in,” said Pinta.
NATO allies have said that they will accept Finland with open arms, and Sweden is also expected to follow suit in the upcoming week.
