Early in the morning on May 12, 2022, the president of Finland announced that Finland was going to seek to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) as soon as possible. This announcement was not too surprising to many due to Russia’s recent invasion of Ukraine causing worldwide conflicts for the non-NATO country. Many predict that Sweden will follow in Finland’s footsteps and join the alliance as well to ensure its security against Russia. NATO was formed in 1949 to directly combat the rising Soviet Union’s control of the Eastern Hemisphere and to control the spread of communism to worldwide democracies.
The addition of Finland to NATO would be huge for the alliance as it would almost triple the size of their shared border with Russia from 440 miles to over 1,200 miles. This would make any retaliation or invasion by NATO much easier to execute and would significantly increase their ability to advance into Russia. This was also one of the reasons why Russia invaded Ukraine: because they were in negotiations to become a NATO member. In a response to Finland’s declaration, the Russian government stated they would “take retaliatory steps, both of military-technical and other nature, to stop the threats to its national security that arise in this regard.” This means that a possible invasion of Finland by Russia could occur, and if done before an approved NATO membership the NATO countries would then again be unable to effectively protect Finland. It is important to remember that Russia has one of the largest military reserves and capabilities on Earth so they could very easily call on their reserves to invade Finland if it is deemed necessary for national security. Establishing Finland as a NATO member would bring NATO one step closer to limiting Russian expansion for good.