Finland ´highly likely´ to apply for NATO bid: Tuppurainen tells CNN

It is “highly likely” that Finland will apply for membership in NATO, said the Minister for European Affairs and Ownership Steering Tytti Tuppurainen to the Cable News Network (CNN) on Monday.

Tuppurainen, however, said that the decision has not yet been made, but called the nation’s likely membership “a very natural response” to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

She added that if her country does indeed apply, she hopes “the ratification process would be as brief as possible,” said the CNN report.

“We would, of course, prefer to have a neighborhood that would have been founded on friendship and cooperation,” she said. “But it is Russia that has distanced itself from the security order and it is Russia that has started war in Europe. It is Russia that has invaded in Ukraine. Now, people see this new reality and the time has come to join NATO,” reported CNN, quoting Tuppurainen as saying.