Regardless of the outcome of Sunday’s elections in Finland, one thing is already certain: the Finns, who for decades have insisted on their military non-alignment, will very soon become members of NATO. Turkey was the last member country to agree to accession on Thursday, and now only a few formalities are left before the process is completed.
All candidates agreed on the historic step. Unlike in Germany, which had relied on its NATO partners for decades and, shocked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, responded with a turnaround in defense policy, Finland’s security architecture does not require a 180-degree turnaround. Because the northern European country, which shares a more than 1,200-kilometer border with Russia, has long relied on a high level of military defense capability.
