When Russia invaded Ukraine last year it did so on the pretext of preventing the Ukrainians from joining NATO. The Russans claimed that they felt encircled by the expansion of NATO. Yet if the invasion of Ukraine was launched to prevent the expansion of NATO then it has had the opposite impact. Even during the Cold War Finland and Sweden had stayed neutral and not applied to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Finland did not join NATO as it did not wish to antagonize the Soviet Union and later Russia.
When Finland sought to join the NATO alliance the majority of members welcomed the application with only Turkey stating that it would consider blocking the membership application. However, this past Thursday(3/30/23) after considering the Finish application application for membership the Turkish government has declared that it supports that bid to join the alliance. Finland has already announced that it is enhancing it’s defenses all along it’s long land border with Russia amid concerns that the Russians could threaten it’s safety.
