Finnish parliament passes Nato bill with large majority
Finland's parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly backed its bid to join Nato. Approval of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's treaties and Finland's accession passed with 184 members of the 200-seat parliament voting in favour, seven against and one abstaining.
In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Finland last May applied to join Nato, having until now relied solely on its own armed forces to defend the 1,300-kilometre (800 mile) border it shares with Russia.
New Nato entrants must be approved by all existing members of the Western military alliance and support for Finland's application remains pending from Turkey and Hungary.
By adopting Nato's founding documents, Finland may get a head start on neighbouring Sweden, which has also applied to join but has had its application held back by Turkey.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has said his country is ready to accept Finland into Nato but accuses Sweden of harbouring people he considers members of terrorist groups.
Sweden is also still awaiting approval from Hungary, whose parliament began debating the ratifications on Wednesday and could hold a vote this month.
Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg last week said he aimed to have both Nordic countries as members in time for a summit scheduled for July.
Hungary starts process to ratify Finland and Sweden in Nato bid
Hungary's parliament started the ratification process of Finland and Sweden's Nato entry after a months-long delay on Wednesday, with the country's president and a government official calling on lawmakers to support the expansion of the defence alliance.
With Hungary's ratification process stranded in parliament since July, nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban aired concerns about Sweden and Finland's Nato membership for the first time last on Friday (February 24).
Among other criticisms, he has accused both countries of spreading "outright lies" about the health of democracy and the rule of law in Hungary.
On Wednesday both Hungarian President Katalin Novak and a Foreign Ministry opened the official legislative debate and urged lawmakers to ratify Finland and Sweden's Nato entry "as soon as possible".
However, as the ratification process started, only around a tenth of Hungary's 199 lawmakers attended the opening debate on the process.
"The expansion of Nato to Finland and Sweden is a significant step towards strengthening the security of the Euro-Atlantic region," Hungarian Foreign Ministry State Secretary Peter Sztaray said, speaking to a nearly empty chamber.
"The countries wishing to join meet all conditions of Nato entry," Sztaray said. "Finland and Sweden's Nato membership serve our foreign policy, security, and economic interests and it also strengthens Nato," he said.
Sztaray said while the government supported talks between lawmakers, Euro-Atlantic security should be their key priority, and Hungary's decision should be driven by common sense rather than emotions.
Finnish Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto on Tuesday said Hungary intends to send a parliamentary delegation to Finland on or around March 9 to discuss the Nordic nation's pending Nato membership.
Orban's chief of staff on Saturday (February 25) said a ratification vote may take place only in the second half of March.
All 30 Nato members need to back the applications from Finland and Sweden.
In addition to Hungary expressing reserves, Sweden has faced objections from Turkey for harbouring what Ankara considers to be members of Kurdish terrorist groups.
Sweden and Finland applied for membership last May and while insisting they wish to join simultaneously, leaders of both countries have said they cannot rule out Finland going first.
Reuters
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