On April 4, Finland joined the alliance called NATO, standing for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization

NATO introduced the thirty-first country in the alliance. “We welcome Finland to the alliance!,” said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Stoltenberg also said that he was looking forward to welcoming Sweden into the alliance as soon as possible.

A lot of people complain about the fact that joining NATO was very long for Finland. This is because every country part of the alliance needs to accept a new one. Otherwise, it will not be part of it. Also, they have to be prudent about who they accept because a nation needs to leave NATO to stop being part of it, other countries can’t kick another one out.

The fact that Finland is now part of the biggest alliance on the planet has a lot of negative impacts on Russia. Here are a few of them. The fact that Finland and Russia have a 1340 kilometers border means a lot. Russia is trying to extend from the west, but they are blocked, because if they attack Finland, 30 countries will defend Finland against Russia’s attack. It would start a third world war.

Also, Finland can block Russia from starting an attack from the water. Finland’s strategic position blocks access to Russia to the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Finland, so they can no longer prepare for an attack from the Sea.

Finland will bring a lot of benefits to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. First, Finland is ranked 51 of 145 out of the countries considered for the annual Global Firepower review. It means that they have a decent army. Second, they will bring a good defense in case of attack. Since Finland is close to Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, three small countries part of NATO, they can use their territory to protect these countries against other nations like Russia.

On the other hand, joining the organization also has positive impacts on Finland. Thirty countries will always be prepared to defend Finland against any attack.  Here’s the opinion of the NATO Secretary General. “Joining NATO is good for Finland, it is good for Nordic security and it is good for NATO as a whole.”

Sweden is also slowly being integrated into the alliance. It is the closest country to Finland from the west. It would be another good acquisition for NATO. Sweden is one of the last countries not part of the treaty that wants to join it. Ukraine, as you probably know, Georgia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina are the nations that want to join the international organization.