Finland votes to speed up bid to join NATO

Finland moved a step closer to joining NATO on Wednesday when lawmakers ratified the nation's bid for membership, with a parliamentary vote ending 184 to 7 in favor.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin's center-left government initiated the vote, seeking to secure the approval of her country's lawmakers before an April 2 general election.

Public opinion in Finland supports membership, and Helsinki wants to progress with its bid before the general election in April, Agence France-Presse reported.

Having held neutral status for decades, both Sweden and Finland applied to join the military alliance last year at the start of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

NATO requires unanimous approval from its member countries to approve accession, but two of its 30 members, Turkiye and Hungary, are yet to formally endorse the bids from Sweden and Finland.

Turkiye has opposed Sweden's application and accused the North European nation of supporting the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which it considers a terrorist group. Talks between the two nations stalled after an activist burned a copy of the Quran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm in January.

Finland is said to face fewer diplomatic hurdles and wants to push ahead with its effort to join the alliance rather than wait to make a joint bid with Sweden, AFP reported.

Finland's vote to speed up the accession process coincided with a visit to Helsinki by Jens Stoltenberg, the NATO secretary-general. In a joint news conference on Tuesday with Marin, Stoltenberg said membership for Finland and Sweden was a "top priority". Both Scandinavian countries meet NATO's entry criteria, he said.

"My message has been for a long time ... that time has come to finalize the ratification process. The time is now to ratify in both Budapest and in Ankara," he said.

Stoltenberg urged Turkiye and Hungary to approve urgently the accession of both Nordic nations. He said the Hungarian Parliament has "made it clear" that it would deliberate ratification in a few days, and that he hoped for an imminent and "positive" vote.

'Outright lies'

Hungary's ratification process has been stranded since July. Prime Minister Viktor Orban aired concerns about Sweden and Finland's NATO membership for the first time last week, Reuters reported. Among his criticisms, Orban has accused both countries of spreading "outright lies" about the quality of democracy and rule of law in Hungary.

Finland's ruling party wants to move ahead with the bid and avoid any potential political vacuum, with elections due on April 2, Euronews reported.

In a preliminary vote last spring, there was near-unanimous support in the Finnish Parliament for joining NATO, and the legislature has now approved a law permitting the country to join the organization.

Finland announced on Tuesday that it has started construction of a fence along parts of its 1,340-kilometer border with Russia "to boost security". A 3-km pilot project in southeastern Finland will be completed in June, with more construction planned between 2023 and 2025.