Strasbourg, 16 May 2022 (TDI): The Prime Minister of Finland, Sanna Marin presented a report at the European Parliament’s plenary session on Finland’s accession to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Finland’s accession to NATO
Prior to the plenary session, the government of Finland had submitted a Report to Parliament on their Accession to (NATO).
“Promoting the rules-based world order, human rights and peace are the cornerstones of Finland’s foreign policy.”
PM @MarinSanna gave a presentation of the report on Finland’s accession to NATO to the parliament.
🗣️Full text of the speech:https://t.co/lvDGL8AZOO#FinlandNATO pic.twitter.com/qSqAUcVuCx
— Finnish Government (@FinGovernment) May 16, 2022
More to this, the Report supplemented the previous Government report on changes in the security environment.
Finland concluded that the President of the country will decide, in agreement with section 93, paragraph 1 of the Constitution of Finland, that Finland will apply for membership in NATO after consulting with Parliament.
Therefore, Marin presented that important changes had taken place in their security environment. Thus, she gave reference to Russia’s demand to NATO countries and the EU, including Finland last year, that NATO stops its plans for expansion in the future.
Prime Minister Marin stated that if they had accepted Russia’s demands, they would have weakened their sovereignty together with their security.
In addition, she said the demands by Russia are in conflict with the European security’s basic principles which are the foundation of Finland’s foreign and security policy.
Consequently, she stated that they stick to the principle that a country has the right in making its own decisions on foreign and security policy.
Marin pointed out that Russia has violated the basic principles of European security together with the principles of the UN Charter.
As a result of this, her report stated that Finland has been examining its own security policy choices. Hence, Finland will be a part of NATO’s united defense as well as its security.
Accordingly, Finland made a commitment to the EU’s mutual assistance as well as the solidarity clause.
Marin said that if the Parliament supports the conclusions of the Report, then the Government will be equipped to make the decisions needed to launch accession talks quickly.
