Finland will make a decision about whether to apply to join the 30-member NATO alliance in the next few weeks, Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Wednesday.
Until now, Finland and fellow Nordic state and neighbor Sweden have shied away from joining NATO, the U.S.-led alliance founded in 1949 to counter the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has forced an urgent rethink.
“There are different perspectives to apply (for) NATO membership or not to apply and we have to analyze these very carefully,” Marin told reporters in a joint news conference in Stockholm with her Swedish counterpart.
“But I think our process will be quite fast, it will happen in weeks,” said Marin, whose country shares a long border with Russia to the east.
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Finland’s government will publish an update of its foreign and security policy in a white paper later on Wednesday.
Sweden is also reviewing its security policy with conclusions expected toward the end of May.
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said it was important to carry out a thorough analysis of whether Sweden should also apply to join NATO.
“There are of course pros and cons with being a member of NATO as there are pros and cons of other security choices,” she said.
“Being a member of NATO, you do have the security with Article 5…,” she said, referring to the alliance commitment to regard an attack on one member as a attack on all. “You also have another responsibility towards other countries.”
(Reporting by Simon Johnson and Johan Ahlander in Stockholm and Essi Lehto in Helsinki, editing by Mark Heinrich)
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