{"id":278976,"date":"2023-04-04T14:59:42","date_gmt":"2023-04-04T14:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/?p=278976"},"modified":"2023-04-04T17:35:56","modified_gmt":"2023-04-04T17:35:56","slug":"finland-joins-nato-as-russias-war-rages-in-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/world\/finland-joins-nato-as-russias-war-rages-in-ukraine\/2023\/","title":{"rendered":"Finland joins NATO as Russia\u2019s war rages in Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"

Finland has joined NATO in a historic shift triggered by the war in Ukraine, prompting anger in Russia where officials have cast the move as a threat.<\/p>\n

The Finnish flag was raised at the Brussels headquarters of the world\u2019s largest military alliance on Tuesday afternoon, almost a year after Helsinki officially applied to join.<\/p>\n

Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto earlier completed the accession process by handing over an official document to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken; the United States Department of State is the repository of NATO texts concerning membership.<\/p>\n

Jens Stoltenberg, head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), hailed \u201ca good day for Finland\u2019s security, for Nordic security and for NATO as a whole\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis will make Finland safer and NATO stronger,\u201d he said. \u201cThis has been the fastest accession process in NATO\u2019s history.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finland President Sauli V\u00e4in\u00e4m\u00f6 Niinist\u00f6 said membership was not \u201ctargeted against anyone\u201d, adding his country was \u201cstable and predictable\u201d.<\/p>\n

Finland applied in May, alongside Sweden, as fears of Russian aggression rose in northern Europe following Moscow\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n

\u201cFinland\u2019s membership is not complete without Sweden,\u201d said Niinist\u00f6. \u201cI look forward to Sweden joining us as the 32nd member.\u201d<\/p>\n

Neighbouring Sweden, which had avoided military alliances for more than 200 years, is being stalled by objections from NATO members Turkey and Hungary.<\/p>\n

More Stories Here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finland has joined NATO in a historic shift triggered by the war in Ukraine, prompting anger in Russia where officials have cast the move as a threat. The Finnish flag was raised at the Brussels headquarters of the world\u2019s largest military alliance on Tuesday afternoon, almost a year after Helsinki officially applied to join. Finnish […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":278978,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[23],"tags":[16548,17063,3838,17064],"class_list":["post-278976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-finland","tag-nato","tag-russia","tag-sweden"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Finland-jpg.webp?fit=1920%2C1440&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gbcghanaonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}