The Finnish Parliament has approved a government bill on the country's accession to NATO. 184 deputies voted in favor, 7 voted against, and one abstained, yle.fi reports.
At the same time, the parliament rejected the drafts of the deputy from the Left Union Markus Mustajarvi. He proposed to clarify that the country would not deploy nuclear weapons on its territory.
Now Finland's application must be approved by President Sauli Niinistö. Then, in order to join the Alliance, it must be ratified by all 30 NATO countries. So far, only Turkey and Hungary have not approved membership. They also did not support Sweden's application.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that some parliamentarians oppose Sweden and Finland's accession to NATO because representatives of these countries "spread brazen lies about Hungary."
In addition, parliamentarians fear a potential war between Russia and NATO. They refer to the situation in Ukraine and the fact that after Finland's accession, Russia's direct border with the Alliance will be more than a thousand kilometers long.
Turkey is ready to support Finland's application, but the republic has several complaints against Sweden. In particular, Ankara accuses Stockholm of harboring members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which it considers a terrorist organization. In January, relations between the two countries were complicated by the burning of the Quran near the Turkish embassy in the Swedish capital.
Turkey's talks with Helsinki and Stockholm on their NATO membership applications will resume on March 9. The United States and other member states of the bloc hope that Finland and Sweden will be formally admitted to the alliance at the NATO summit to be held in Vilnius on July 11.
The day before, Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said during a joint conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg that the delay in ratification of Finland and Sweden's applications undermines confidence in the alliance and calls into question its open door policy.
Background. As a reminder, Finland has started building a fence on the border with Russia.