I hadn’t seen anything on DKos regarding this bit of news, so wanted to get it out there.
Two major things have happened this week regarding Finland’s application to join NATO:
1. Finland’s President signed the necessary legal amendments required for NATO membership.
2. Turkiye has rescinded it’s objections to Finland’s membership and a Turkish parliamentary committee approved Finland’s application to join the alliance. President Erdogan has said the full Turkish Parliament will move to ratifying the application, which could happen as soon as next week.
These events leave only one last step: Hungary has yet to vote to ratify the application. However, the vote for this is scheduled next week on March 27th and the application is expected to pass.
If both Turkish and Hungarian parliaments vote next week to ratify the application, then the ratification process will be unanimous among NATO members, a requirement for joining the alliance.
In other NATO news, this week the Swedish Parliament also overwhelming passed required legislation to join NATO, bringing that nation a step closer to NATO membership as well. However Turkiye and Hungary are both continuing their objections to Swedish membership in NATO at present. Hopefully these differences will be resolved in the near future.
NATO’s Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg responded to the news on Turkiye’s decision by saying, "President Putin invaded Ukraine with the declared goal of having less NATO in Europe. He is getting exactly the opposite. There will be more NATO in Europe".
Finland shares a 832 mile border with Russia, and has an active military of about 20,000 and reserve military of about 238,000.
Sources:
President seals Finland’s NATO bid by signing required laws (AP News)
Turkish parliamentary commission approves Finland's NATO bid (Reuters)
Secretary General welcomes progress on Finland’s road to NATO membership (NATO)