Finland is set to become the 31st member of NATO on Tuesday, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. The country's flag will be hoisted outside NATO headquarters as it becomes the newest member of the Western alliance.

"Tomorrow we will welcome Finland as the 31st member," Stoltenberg told reporters a day before a historic meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.

"President Putin went to war against Ukraine with a clear aim to get less NATO," Stoltenberg said. 

"He's getting the exact opposite."

Finland's President Sauli Niinisto will speak at the event, Helsinki said. 

Meanwhile, Russia has said that it will strengthen its military capacity in its western and northwestern regions in response to Finland's expected accession to NATO. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told state-owned news agency RIA, "We will strengthen our military potential in the western and northwestern direction. In the event that the forces and resources of other NATO members are deployed in Finland, we will take additional steps to reliably ensure Russia's military security."

After Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion of Ukraine, Finland and its neighbour Sweden were forced to drop decades of non-alignment and seek to join NATO's protective umbrella. 

Turkey and Hungary were opposed to the country's membership and held up Helsinki's bid for months. The two countries are still standing in the way of Stockholm's bid for NATO. Ankara's parliament cleared the final obstacle for Finland with a vote last week.  

The entire process wrapped up in under a year and counts as the fastest membership process in the alliance's recent history. 

The final formalities will be done at NATO headquarters in Brussels.  

Finland's foreign minister will hand over the formal accession papers to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday, the keeper of NATO's founding treaty.

Source WION

BDST: 2104 HRS, APRIL 03, 2023
MSK