on Finland's Accession to NATO

By Dr. Abdelhaq Azouzzi

More than seven decades have passed since the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO), which obligated the United States of America (USA), Canada, and ten European countries to consider that any attack on any of them is an attack on all of them. Thus, the strongest and largest military alliance in the history of mankind was established. Summits and meetings of the Member States are constantly held, but the summits of recent years were held amidst clouds of ambiguity that are few in comparison and form a new world order imbued with mystery, the unknown, and uncertainty.

With the passage of years, it is also possible to notice the continuous adaptation of the alliance structures to face the endless European, Mediterranean, and international security challenges.

And before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron had previously made a statement about the "clinical death" of the Western alliance, in an interview with the widely circulated British magazine "The Economist".

Macron’s statement then sparked direct and strong reactions even from the largest ally, which I mean Germany, as German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticized this “radical” ruling, and said in a press conference with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, “I do not think that this inappropriate ruling is necessary, even if we have problems, even if we have to recover.

For his part, Stoltenberg said at that time that the alliance is still "strong," stressing that "the United States and Europe are cooperating with each other more than they have done in decades." As for Moscow, of course, it welcomed Macron's statements by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, who wrote on her page on Facebook, that Macron’s statements are words of gold. It is an accurate definition of the current reality of NATO."

The unprecedented statement that the French President made at the time, no one remembers that statement anymore and does not even want to think about it with the Ukraine war as Europeans have a great fear of the repercussions of that war on them in the areas of security, energy, security, food, and even existence.

Everyone wants to appear in the image that the countries of the alliance are united, and that, in addition to the Ukrainian crisis, they agree on everything. The statements of the French President at the time could be considered non-strategic and unwise, which was embodied in the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the quest of other countries to join the alliance and radically rethink their defence policies locally and regionally.

Perhaps the most prominent repercussions are Finland's accession these days to the alliance, to become the Scandinavian country that shares a 1,300-kilometer border with Russia, the thirty-first member of NATO on the anniversary of its founding on April 4, 1949.

We know that Finland's accession to the alliance is a historic turning point for this country which defended for decades the policy of non-alignment of the military with any party during the cold war.

Finland was under Russian control for a century until the outbreak of the Russian Revolution in 1917. Since that period, Russia has faced Finland militarily twice, (1939-1940) and (1941-1944), but Finland lost the war in both rounds.

After the end of World War II, Finland adopted a position of neutrality, which later evolved into the principle of non-alignment militarily following the collapse of the former Soviet Union.

This policy has always been considered a protection towards Russia, for fear of a new conflict with its neighbour, but with the war in Ukraine, Finland developed war strategies so the Western alliance began to be seen as a semi-reliable source of security.

The total length of the border between Russia and NATO will almost double; Helsinki will benefit from the protection provided by Article V of the NATO Charter, which stipulates that if a member state is subjected to an armed attack, the other countries will consider this act as an armed attack directed against all members and will take the measures deemed necessary to provide assistance to the targeted country.

Moscow, of course, considers this accession a direct threat to its interests and sovereignty and a new escalation of the already tense situation as a result of the war with Ukraine, which is a source of concern for the Finns. It's northeastern shore.

Translated by Ahmed Moamar