Finland’s approaches to joining NATO

Abstract

For the region of Northern Europe the beginning of 2022 was marked by an important event — the application of Finland and Sweden for membership in the NATO military alliance. For both countries the move signified the end of decades of the neutrality policy, and the North Atlantic Alliance expansion would be relatively significant for the first time since 2009. One of the main features of Finland’s and Sweden’s process of joining NATO was the desire of both countries’ administrations to achieve the Alliance membership simultaneously. Due to certain difficulties that had risen on the international level and prevented Sweden from becoming a member of the organization swiftly, the Finnish administration made the ultimate decision to join NATO independently from Sweden. The decision was connected with the abandonment of the principle of “special relations” between Sweden and Finland. The approval of the NATO membership bill during its ratification in the Finnish parliament was not unanimous. Several lawmakers spoke out against the country’s integration with NATO. This and other factors testify to the controversial attitude to NATO in the Finnish society. “The Kurdish issue” was among the important aspects of Finland’s North Atlantic Alliance joining process. Prior to 2022 Finland along with Sweden adhered to the position of supporting various Kurdish groups that were recognized in Turkey as terrorist organizations. Finland also took in a lot of Kurdish refugees and provided political asylum to some of them. The Turkish authorities were dissatisfied with those actions hence in May 2022 Turkey blocked the NATO membership application of the Finnish republic. “The Kurdish issue” was not fully resolved, but the sides managed to reach a compromise.