Nato’s border with Russia doubles as Finland joins
Finland has become the 31st member of NATO, with the Finnish flag set to be raised at NATO headquarters in Brussels later.
Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and the US Secretary of State will attend the ceremony, which marks a setback for Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
The move means Russia’s border with NATO member states has doubled, and it follows a surge in Finnish public opinion towards joining NATO after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
If Finland is invaded or attacked, all NATO members will come to its aid.
Sweden had also applied to join but is yet to be approved, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accusing Stockholm of embracing Kurdish militants
.Meanwhile, the Kremlin has warned that NATO’s enlargement is a “violation of our security and our national interests”, and it has said it will be watching closely how NATO uses Finnish territory.